Thedecree instructs the State Railway of Thailand (SRT) to hire a Chinese privatecontractor, which must be certified by China’s National Development and ReformCommission, to supervise the construction.
Thecontractor will also oversee the design of the railway infrastructure, rail andelectrical systems while serving as an advisor for construction and workforcetraining.
TheSRT must draft a contract detailing the project’s costs and other conditionsbased on earlier Cabinet resolutions and meetings of the Thailand – ChinaRailway Committee.
Inorder to issue the decree, Thai PM invoked Section 44 of the interimConstitution 2014 to clear legal problems to the delayed project.
Constructionon the railway started in 2014 with planned linkage between China’s Kunmingprovince and the Gulf of Thailand.
During the first stage, a 252km section will be built connecting Bangkok with theThai province of Nakhon Ratchasima at an estimated cost of 5.2 billion USD. -VNA