Bids in for State Railway of Thailand’s THB11.4bn double-track rail project
24 July 2019
Four groups of investors and one company on Tuesday submitted bids to supply train signalling and communications equipment for the first phase of the double-track rail upgrade project, worth 11.4 billion baht, according to the State Railway of Thailand (SRT).
The project consists of three separate contracts: the 148-kilometre, 2.7-billion-baht northern route between Lop Buri and Pak Nam Pho in Nakhon Sawan; the 132-km, 2.4-billion-baht northeastern section Map Kabao in Saraburi to Chira Railway Junction in Khon Kaen; and the 169-km, 6.2-billion-baht southern route from Nakhon Pathom to Chumphon.
A joint venture between China Railway Signal and Communication (CRSC) and Japan’s Hitachi, a joint venture between Italian-Thai Development Plc (ITD) and South Korea’s LSIS and German industrial giant Siemens tendered their bids for all three separate contracts.
The BT-UN joint venture between Canada’s Bombardier and Thailand’s Unique Engineering and Construction Plc, submitted its bid for the northern section while the BHBR joint venture led by Beijing Hollysys competed for the northeastern contract.
The BHBR’s participation caught those in the industry by surprise because it purchased the bidding documents on Monday.
SRT deputy governor Sujit Chaosirikul said the bid selection committee will first consider the general qualifications, then the technical qualifications of the contenders, which will take about 15 days to complete.
The committee will move on to open the price proposals next month, with the bid winners likely to be announced in September, he said.
He added that the contracts are expected to be signed in September.
According to Mr Sujit, the number of contenders was low when compared with the number of firms which purchased the bidding documents that have been available since May 21.
The bidding closed at noon Tuesday and the companies looking to participate in the process were instructed to purchase the documents by Monday of this week.
Source: https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/1717555/bids-in-for-srts-b11-4bn-double-track-rail-project
