Road-link Project Boosts Thailand

Road-link project boosts Thailand

MAE HONG SON: -- Thailand's northern economy, tourism, as well as border trade and investment will all benefit from a new short-cut road linking the northern resort city of Chiang Mai with neighbouring Mae Hong Son Province.

The new inter-province road, called Mae Hong Son-Sa-merng-Chiang Mai, will be Thailand's first road which gets through a naturally-mountainous tunnel, according to Mae Hong Son Governor Direk Konklib.

A feasibility study is being conducted on the new inter-province road project, which was approved in principle by the cabinet at its official meeting in Chiang Mai earlier this week, he said.

"Travelling by buses or cars between Chiang Mai and Mae Hong Son now takes up to 7-8 hours on a winding path. If the Mae Hong Son-Sa-merng-Chiang Mai is constructed, when completed, it will considerably boost the local economy and tourism of the northern region as a whole, as well as investment and border trade with Myanmar, as Mae Hong Son is only 280 kilometres far from Pyinmana, reportedly to be Myanmar's new capital city," he told local journalists.

"The new road link will also turn Mae Hong Son to be a liveable province in the North with many attractive tourist sites," the governor added.

--TNA 2006-02-10