Thailand pushing ahead with highway project

Thailand’s Highways Department is asking the country’s interim military government to decide on a planned US$2.59 billion highway project. The four-lane highway runs along a 196km route, connecting Bang Pa-in in Ayutthaya to Nakhon Ratchasima via Saraburi. The Highways Department wants to include the project in the eight-year strategic infrastructure development plan put forward by the military government. The project could be partly funded from the 2015-2016 budget as well as through loans and a joint public-private venture. The new highway is important as it will lower congestion levels on the route to Northeast Thailand. The first phase is proposed to start in 2016 until 2017, with work being carried out at the Bang Pa-in and Pak Chong districts in Nakhon Ratchasima. The second phase will run from 2016 to 2018 and will involve work on a section of the route from Pak Chong to downtown Nakhon Ratchasima.