Entire Board of the State Railway Resigns; Kulit Orders New Team to Resolve 'Hopewell Compensation – Airport Rail Link – Red Line'

Entire Board of the SRT Resigns; Kulit Orders New Team to Resolve 'Hopewell Compensation – Airport Rail Link – Red Line'

On September 30, 2019, Mr. Kulit Sombatsiri, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Energy and Chairman of the State Railway of Thailand (SRT) Board, convened the final board meeting before the entire SRT board submitted their resignation to the Chairman of the SRT Board.

Mr. Kulit stated that today's board meeting summarized the performance over the past period. Following this, all board members submitted their resignations to the Chairman of the SRT Board. He personally informed Minister Saksayam Chidchob of his resignation, effective from October 1, 2019. He confirmed that the resignation of the SRT board was not due to political pressure but acknowledged that this board was appointed during the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) government. Therefore, with the change of government and for appropriateness, the SRT board decided to resign as a whole, in line with the previously agreed timeline, to allow the government to appoint a new SRT board to drive important policies and large investment projects of the SRT forward.

Mr. Kulit further stated that among the urgent tasks he wanted to pass on to the new SRT board are significant projects, including the Red Line electric train project, which is currently facing delays from the planned schedule. This includes the construction of Bang Sue Central Station, where part of the project area has been encroached upon by locals, preventing the handover of the area to contractors. Meanwhile, the assembly of the electric train cars is complete, but the interior design is still underway. According to the timeline set in the plan, this project is expected to be operational for the public by early 2021. If these issues are not addressed promptly, there is a concern that the service may not commence on time.

Additionally, there is a project to construct a double-track railway connecting to Laem Chabang Port. In principle, the SRT should expedite the railway construction to be completed before the port, to ensure effective and optimal connectivity.

As for the high-speed rail project connecting three airports (Don Mueang – Suvarnabhumi – U-Tapao), after the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) Policy Committee announced the selection of “CP Group and its partners” as the winning bidder, they have yet to sign the joint investment agreement due to ongoing negotiations between the EEC committee and the CP Group, which has not yet submitted the matter for the SRT board's consideration. Recently, the Ministry of Transport set a deadline for the CP Group to sign the agreement by October 15, 2019. If they fail to sign, the second-ranked bidder will be called to proceed instead, which raises concerns about complications, especially during the period when a new SRT board has not yet been appointed.

“Lastly, I would like to urge the new SRT board to address the issue of the Hopewell compensation case, which is currently under coordination with the Attorney General. The previous SRT board has worked diligently over the past 1 year and 5 months, but there are still unfinished tasks that I hope the new SRT board will continue.”  Mr. Kulit concluded.