Thailand, Burma To Build Land Link Of Deep Sea Ports

[george]

Thailand, Burma to build land link of deep sea ports

BANGKOK: -- Thailand and Burma has a greed to build a land link to connect deep sea ports of the two neighbouring countries, Prime Minister Samak Sundarave said yesterday.

Samak said his visit to Burma Friday was successful and the two countries agreed to build a land link for their deep sea ports.

Samak said the land link will connect Thailand's Laem Chabang deep sea port with a deep sea port being constructed in Burma's Tavoy to facilitate shipping between the Indian and Pacific oceans.

The land link would be built through Kanchanaburi, Samak said.

-- The Nation 2008-03-15

[canopus1969]

They tried to build a railway once - why not again instead of a road ?

[Martin]

By the time it could be built, shortage/price of oil will have made trucking uneconomic, so only a railroad (electrified and using hydrogenerated electricity) makes sense.

It would be a huge civil engineering challenge to get through the difficult terrain between Kanchanaburi and the Burma coast.

I would be interested to see what economic justification can be made for the building of this link.

There seems to be a good chance that this will be one of those 'talked-of' projects that never gets onto the drawing board, never mind off it.

[CGW]

This has been talked about for many years now, possibly? some of the people that bought all the land that would be needed for this project many years ago, are now back in government?

[jackspratt]

Thailand, Burma to build land link of deep sea ports

BANGKOK: -- Thailand and Burma has a greed...........

Hmmm!...........spelling mistake, or Freudian slip?

[Tony121]

It will be the only road to democracy the burmese will see

[Kan Win]

Lots of rumours years ago about this link. They recon that a road has already been built, lets see if this really takes off.

Google Earth Map

There is already a “cargo loading container” area set up just outside of Kan on the way to Bangkok, which has been up-graded a little, to load 40’ containers onto to the railway system, so trucks can deliver their goods there and then the train could take then all the way to “Laem Chabang deep sea port”.

No need to build another new railway line then.

As this boarder crossing will only be for cargo, there is little possibility of doing a boarder hop, but then again stranger things happen in this good country.

So fingers crossed, lets hope for the best and have a boarder crossing to the folks that need to do a visa run, whilst having a short break on holiday in Kan and fill up the empty resorts and guest-houses during the week days.

Yours truly,

Kan Win

[LaoPo]

Thailand, Burma to build land link of deep sea ports

BANGKOK: -- Thailand and Burma has a greed to build a land link to connect deep sea ports of the two neighbouring countries, Prime Minister Samak Sundarave said yesterday.

Samak said his visit to Burma Friday was successful and the two countries agreed to build a land link for their deep sea ports.

Samak said the land link will connect Thailand's Laem Chabang deep sea port with a deep sea port being constructed in Burma's Tavoy to facilitate shipping between the Indian and Pacific oceans.

The land link would be built through Kanchanaburi, Samak said.

-- The Nation 2008-03-15

I wonder if this landlink will be commercially profitable.

I also wonder if Thailand and Burma are aware that in a few years freight & containers from East Asia will be shipped by train to Europe.....They had try-outs already; some (rail width) problems have to be solved but on the middle term it's much more profitable since it saves weeks in shipping time.

They are working on more than one route; northern and southern; the southern route can include freight and containers from S'pore/Malaysia/Thailand and neighboring countries.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7180906.stm

http://www.unescap.org/TTDW/common/TIS/TAR...lock-trains.asp

LaoPo

[Johpa]

It will be the only road to democracy the burmese will see

More likely it will be yet another death line in the region, a legacy that begins with the death railway in WWII, continues with the death oil pipeline in Burma (the UNOCAL line), an now a new death truck road, unless of course you think the Burmese generals will change their ways and not use forced labor along their side of the divide.

I am also curious whether in this new age of $100/bl oil, whether it would make economic sense to offload a container ship along the Andaman sea and then truck the containers over to the Gulf of Siam to reload the containers for their continuing voyage to East Asia.

[LaoPo]

It will be the only road to democracy the burmese will see

More likely it will be yet another death line in the region, a legacy that begins with the death railway in WWII, continues with the death oil pipeline in Burma (the UNOCAL line), an now a new death truck road, unless of course you think the Burmese generals will change their ways and not use forced labor along their side of the divide.

I am also curious whether in this new age of $100/bl oil, whether it would make economic sense to offload a container ship along the Andaman sea and then truck the containers over to the Gulf of Siam to reload the containers for their continuing voyage to East Asia.

I suppose only the financial and logistic experts of the giant container lines have the answer to that. (apart from my earlier post about railway transport Asia>>>Europe)

An agreement between Thailand and Burma isn't enough.

LaoPo

[Ricardo]

Nice to see that Thailand continues to support UN-efforts, to bring pressure upon Burma by neighbouring countries, to move towards peace and democracy. And a Thai wanted to be Secretary-General of the UN ? Sadly, not much chance.

[Flatouthruthefog]

They tried to build a railway once - why not again instead of a road ?

Prior to WW2 there was a plan to build a rail line from Chiang Mai, due west into Burma and off to their south coast port. Then came the "death railway" from Bkk thru Kanchanaburi and north west into Burma. I heard that would still be viable provided it re-routed round a giant and relatively new reservoir somewhere near the border.

Plus, didn't we also hear of the mammoth east-west 'motorway' plan to link Vietnam with Turkey & Europe through Thailand, specifically through Mae Sot-Myawaddy? And has Thailand not only built a few kms on 'this' side of Mae Sot already, to show good faith, AND promised loans to help the Burmese follow through on their patch furthur west?

Anyone out there keep actual records, press cutting etc? I'm sure I'm not dreaming.

PS: pleased to see we are all referring to Burma by it's real name, by the by! Keep it up!