Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul has restored the "Land Bridge" plan after the Iranian conflict and the closure of the Ormuz Strait highlighted the level of dependence of many countries on strategic maritime routes.
According to the plan, Thailand will build a logistics corridor worth 1,000 billion baht (about 30.45 billion USD), creating a transport route to replace the overloaded Malacca Strait. The project will connect 2 new deep-water ports including Chumphon in the east, along the Gulf of Thailand, and Ranong in the west, along the Andaman Sea.
The Malacca Strait is about 900km long, located between Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore, and is the shortest sea route connecting East Asia with the Middle East and Europe.
Analysts believe that Thailand's project is still a very large economic ambition and is unlikely to directly compete with the Malacca Strait as a global transit route. However, the project could become a small but useful strategic corridor for Thailand itself.
According to an internal presentation document from the Thai government, the proposed transport corridor could help reduce logistics costs by nearly 30% and shorten up to 14 shipping days for goods moving between southern China and Indian Ocean ports serving South Asia and the Middle East.
The focus of the project is a standard gauge railway line about 90km long connecting 2 deep-water ports. This railway line is designed to handle a maximum of 20 million TEUs (standard 20-foot containers) per year.
In addition, a meter gauge railway line will connect the freight flow with Thailand's existing national railway network. The new transport corridor will also have a multi-lane highway system, local support routes and all are integrated with the national transport network.
According to Thai estimates, about 80% of the containers processed at major ports along the Malacca Strait, including Singapore, are transit cargo. These are containers waiting to be transferred from one ship to another instead of serving the domestic market.
We want to win a piece of this 80% market, especially the cargo ship segment" - Mr. Jiraroth Sukolrat, General Director of the Thai Transport Policy and Planning Office, said, referring to transport ships with a capacity of 12,000 TEUs or less.
According to the Thai government's assessment, the transit of goods between the Gulf of Thailand and the Andaman Sea through this land bridge may be about 10% cheaper and 6 days faster than equivalent routes passing through Singapore, mainly thanks to reducing congestion.
However, Mr. Jiraroth emphasized: "We are not targeting super-large transport ships on major shipping routes.
A council appointed by the Thai government is reviewing the project and previous impact assessment reports. The results are expected to be submitted to the government before the end of July.
The idea of a land bridge was first proposed around 2020 but did not materialize due to policy changes and a lack of continuous investment capital.
The current project no longer includes petrochemical complexes and oil refineries but shifts its focus to developing seaports, railways and light industries.
