Thai railways to upgrade three more key routes to twin track
Thailand’s Ministry of Transport says it is already to seek cabinet approval for the upgrade of three more sectors of railway lines in the country. Deputy-minister Ormsin Chivapruck says the proposal is to change almost 500kms of tracks from single to double.
He noted that the upgrades would speed up journey times on the three arterial rail routes and was all part of the master plan to enhance the Thai rail travel experience. The first of the planned upgrades is for the Northern Line from Bangkok to Chiang Mai. The 150kms of track between Pak Nam Pho and Lopburi will be upgraded.
The second sector is 130kms long and runs between Thanon Chira Junction and Map Kabao on the line to the northeast region of Esarn. At 165kms, the Southern Line sector linking Nakhon Pathom and Hua Hin is the longest of the current proposed railtrack improvements.
Deputy-minister Chivapruck says the proposals will be submitted for approval within the next couple of weeks and they should be put out to tender by the end of October at the latest. The total value of the contracts is more than THB70 billion and the deputy-minister stated the terms of reference were being tweaked to allow more contractors to bid.
Contractors in charge of building a Metro train line for Ho Chi Minh City say it is two thirds finished. The nearly 20km-long line will run between the central Ben Thanh zone and eastern Suoi Tien District.
Phuket’s Laguna Resort is the venue for this weekend’s island marathon. The resort has released a bulletin saying 7,000 competitors from 40 countries will be running in the 12th edition of the perennially popular event.
Vietnam’s mobile telephone services provider Mobifone has inaugurated a programme giving users free access to Facebook. Subscribers with Mobifone SIM cards will be able to log into a slimmed down version of their Facebook accounts even if they have no credit or data balance remaining.
