Thailand has given details of the $20bn of infrastructure projects that will be approved by its PPP committee this year.
These include seven projects with a price tag of more than $1bn.
Three of them involve work to extend the Bangkok metro, which at present has two lines, blue and purple.
There are two schemes to build the orange line, which will run east to west through the northern half of the city. A $3.1bn section will connect the Thailand Cultural Centre and Min Buri in the eastern outskirts, and a $2.4bn project will link the cultural centre with the Talin Chan floating market in the northwestern suburbs.
There is also a $3.7bn extension of the existing purple line between the Kanchanaphisek Outer Ring Road and Tao Pun station, which will be an interchange with the blue line.
Above ground there will be a $4.3bn PPP to build a high-speed rail line from Bangkok southeast to the coastal town of Rayong, and a $3.2bn southeastern link between the capital and the resort of Hua Hin.
The largest road scheme is a $2.3bn motorway between Nakhon Pathom, 50km west of Bangkok, and the resort of Cha-am, about 100km to the south.
There is also a project to enhance the private sector’s role in the Suvarnabhumi airport rail link, which is worth $1.2bn.
There are another five worth less than $1bn, including motorways, a rail station and a waste management scheme.
According to the Bangkok Post, this is the largest value of PPP projects to be approved since the committee began work in 1992. Last year it approved five megaprojects worth $9.5bn. Two of them, both monorails, have now secured Cabinet approval.
Image: A train on BMT’s purple line (Rsa)
