C.I. Group announced their daughter company Siam Railway Development Co
On July 25th, EABC member and Gold Partner C.I. Group announced their daughter company Siam Railway Development Co plans to build a train repair and refurbishment centre in the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) to take advantage of the government’s decision to extend the railway system.
The company director Sekbud Buaduang told the company has acquired 30 rai (4.8 hectares) of land adjacent to the Bang Nam Prieo railway station along the Eastern Line and would start to build the repair facility after the State Railway of Thailand (STR) approved a short line to link it to the rail network.
Sekbud said facility was needed because the STR’s repairing unit could not currently handle a large volume of work. He also noted that the government plans to build double-track railways to increase passenger and goods transport and, in particular, to support the development of EEC projects.
The company has consulted with private firms such as Siam Cement Group and PTT that own cargo trains that need repair and maintenance. If the investment goes as planned, the company is expected to begin operations in 2019. Services will include repairing diesel-powered locomotives, passenger bogies and freight trains, and related technical works. The company plans to recruit about 100 workers of whom 80 will be engineers and technicians. It is also looking forward to providing services in Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam in the future, Sekbud said.
He said foreign investors had shown interest in investing in the company because they saw its potential. Foreign investors were also keen to have a local partner so they could qualify for participation in new projects from the SRT.
In the frame of German-Thai Railway Partnership at a meeting on July 25th, co-chaired by EABC Working Group Rail & Road Infrastructure (Mr. G. Wolff), Life Cycle Costs, Standards and Maintenance and Inspection of tracks and rolling stock was discussed. Hosted by NSTDA, it is expected to publish a final report soon, in order to support the Thai Ministry of Transport, including OTP, SRT and MRTA, to improve quality of the future projects at reasonable costs.
