Transport minister pushes land bridge amid Hormuz crisis

The crisis in the Strait of Hormuz has highlighted the strategic importance of key shipping lanes and is providing significant impetus for Thailand to develop the massive “land bridge” project, Transport Minister Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn said today.

He said the project would provide an additional logistics link between the Indian and Pacific oceans, bypassing the Strait of Malacca.

The Transport Ministry will propose the one-trillion-baht mega project to the Cabinet, tentatively in June or July.

He dismissed criticism that Thailand will see only limited benefit from the enormous infrastructure project, because cargo containers will have to be offloaded from ships at one port, then transported by train or truck to a port on the other side of the Kra Isthmus to be reloaded onto ships for their onward journeys, a process which will increase costs and journey time.

Phiphat said container ships typically make multiple ports of call on their routes. A ship will partially load and unload at each port to maximize efficiency and cargo volume.

Ships that partially offload containers at Thai ports may continue their voyages through the Strait of Malacca to unload the remaining containers in Singapore or other destinations beyond, he said.

The transport minister explained that the bulk of the one-trillion-baht investment required to build the project would be borne by foreign investors, adding that Thailand will allocate land for the infrastructure and grant concessions to the investors.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul expressed confidence that the project would be beneficial to Thailand and would boost its economic growth, adding the present circumstances justify the implementation of this infrastructure project, which would reduce Thailand’s reliance on sea lanes controlled by other countries or international bodies.

The land bridge project involves building deep-sea ports in both Chumphon and Ranong provinces, linked by 90 km of new railway, a motorway and pipelines, and is aimed at shortening routes by four days and cutting costs by 15%.