Nong Khai to become a logistics hub
AS A GATEWAY to Laos and China's southern part, Natha Railway Station's container yard in Nong Khai in the Northeast will be further developed as the only one-stop service centre for logistics in the region.
The design for an extended area of the inland logistics centre is part of the second phase 355-kilometre Nakhon Ratchasima-Nong Khai section of the Bt400-billion Sino-Thai high-speed railway project.
“If the rail line can be successfully connected to China via Laos, the project will be feasible,” Chaiwat Thongkamkoon, deputy director of the Office of Transport and Traffic Policy and Planning (OTP), said during a recent press tour of the site.
The project would be worth the investment, as its economic internal rate of return is projected at more than 12 per cent, he said.
“The Thai-Chinese railway project, which is under development between the two governments under a government-to-government deal, was initially set to kick-off by the end of this year.
“The eighth meeting of the two nations will take place in Beijing on October 28-29, focusing more deeply on details of the project’s financing and construction engineering,” he said.
The project will be a double-track railway using the standard 1.435-metre gauge, carrying trains at a speed of 180km per hour, for the Bangkok-Kaeng Khoi and Map Ta Phut-Kaeng Khoi-Nakhon Ratchasima-Nong Khai routes. The total length is 883km.
The logistics centre was designed as a regional hub of one-stop logistics transport services. It could be merged with that of Laos to shorten the time for customs procedures and reduce the cost of discharging goods.
This facility, which is part of the Nakhon Ratchasima-Nong Khai section, was designed to serve higher demand for trade and freight transport in and through the region in the future when the whole loop of the standard-gauge railway is complete.
Paiboon Chokpraisin, vice president of Asian Engineering Consultants Corp Co, the project manager for the Nakhon Ratchasima-Nong Khai section, said the design work for the section, including the logistics transport centre at Natha Railway Station, was 95 per cent complete.
The 297-rai container yard at Natha Railway Station, besides accommodating passengers to and from Laos, provides goods transportation services to and from Laem Chabang Station.
At the first stage, however, Natha Railway Station and the surrounding area of 890 rai of land, which the OTP is studying, will be upgraded from a container yard to a multi-modal transportation hub to accommodate the freer flow of passengers and goods to and from Laos. This is aimed at services based on the current metre-gauge railway network.
The hub will house the customs checkpoint, container yard, train yard and maintenance centre for passenger trains. Goods and products could shift their transport modes from trucks to other trucks or trucks to trains and vice versa more conveniently.
According to the Land Transport Department’s study, container truck arrivals at the station would reach 87,600 in 2022 and 226,300 in 2032.
To make the hub reach its utilisation at full scale, it needs to connect to the container yard at Thanaleng Train Station, which is under construction and partly funded by the Thai government via the Neighbouring Countries Economics Development Cooperation Agency. The container yard is part of second phase of the Lao-Thai railway construction project.
Sonesack N Nhansana, deputy director-general of Laos’ Railway Department, said the container-yard construction was expected to be completed by the end of this year.
It will include a railway mainline, track works, signalling and telecommunications systems, main office and a row house, container yard, road works, platform, operation office, warehouse, and gate and weight station.
It will be able to handle 1 million containers a year, a Laotian officer said.
The main imports to Thailand are expected to be wood, furniture, agricultural products and handicrafts, while the goods shipped to Laos are likely to be building and construction materials, auto parts and consumer goods. According to OTP’s study, goods transport via the Northeast railway network from Thailand to China’s southern part via Laos will reach 4.1 million tonnes in 2022 and 12.9 million tonnes in 2052 by the metre-gauge railway network.
But, the figure for goods transportation will be up to 4.9 million tonnes in 2022 and 14.5 million tonnes in 2052 if using the standard-gauge railway network.
