Major parties all support plans for rail link from Denchai to Chiang Rai

By The Nationon Sunday

Democrats, Pheu Thai, BJT say they would push to build line from Lamphun

Major political parties contesting for House seats in the July 3 election have promised to build the long-awaited Denchai-Chiang Rai railroad.

Kanok Wongtangarn, a party-list MP candidate from the Democrat Party, told a Nation Channel session in this northern province that the planned route, from Denchai in Lamphun province, would be further connected with southern China, Burma and Laos in later stages.

Wanchai Jongsuthanamanee, an MP candidate with Bhum Jai Thai Party, said residents had been waiting for the railway project for a long time but he would speed up the project's implementation if his party won a place in the next government.

The Transport Ministry, which was overseen by the party during the Abhisit-led coalition, had made preparations to seek a Bt174-million budget to conduct a feasibility study on the project.

A rail line from Denchai to Chiang Rai would help lower transport costs to and from this northern province and boost its competitiveness as a centre of a four-country-cross-border economic development area involving Thailand, China, Burma and Laos.

Kanok, of the Democrat Party, said caretaker prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva had also instructed the Finance Ministry to conduct a feasibility study on extending the route from Chiang Rai to the southern Chinese province of Yunnan.

There was a preliminary plan to link northern Thailand with southern China via a high-speed railway, he said, so as to boost trade and investment in the 10 northern-most provinces of Thailand.

Samart Kaewmeechai, an MP candidate from Pheu Thai party, said it was also ready to push for implementation of this railway project.

"However, we will do it as part of the high-speed train project from Bangkok to Chiang Mai and then Chiang Rai, Laos and southern China," he said.

-- The Nation 2011-05-29

Sounds great!...It's a pity it's all a dream....It'd be great for the people of Phrae.

They can save the expenditure of Bt 174-million to conduct a feasibility study. I can tell them right now, as can most residents of the north, that it is not feasible to move Denchai to Lamphun province so that they can build a railway with "the planned route, from Denchai in Lamphun province". It might be feasible to build the railway from Denchai, from its current location in Phrae province, but building it from Denchai in Lamphun is patently ridiculous.

The story only serves to further reinforce the belief that the Democrats, the Nation and others from Bangkok know as little about the north as they know about parts of the world outside of Thailand. As far as Democart party list candidates such as Kanok, and those 'reporting' their plans for the north go, it is obvious that for them Thailand is spelled B-A-N-G-K-O-K.

Edited May 29, 201115 yr by tigermonkey