State Railway of Thailand told to speed up redesign of walkway between Red Line’s Rajavithi station and nearby Ramathibodi Hospital
The Transport Ministry has ordered the State Railway of Thailand (SRT) to speed up its redesign of the Red Line’s Rajavithi station which includes an easy access walkway to a hospital.
Chayatham Phromsorn, permanent secretary for transport, said on Thursday the walkway inclusion would allow people to access nearby Ramathibodi Hospital without needing to cross any roads.
Mr Chayatham said the construction bidding for the Bang Sue-Phayathai-Makkasan-Hua Mak-Hua Lamphong extension of the Red Line will be held in October, so the design adjustment for the station’s walkway needs to be finalised as soon as possible.
The ministry is generally seeking to improve public transport access to Bangkok’s main teaching hospitals, he said.
Mr Chayatham said this has also influenced a design adjustment of the Red Line’s other extension, Taling Chan-Siriraj.
In the near future, he said, travelling to Siriraj Hospital, the oldest teaching hospital in Thailand, will be a lot more convenient with two electric rail links, the Red Line and Orange Line extensions, adding to existing access via the Chao Phraya boat and ferry services.
Construction of the 26-kilometre-long Red Line extension is expected to begin in 2023, he said.
Mr Chayatham said the bidding for construction concessions for three of four Red Line extensions is expected to begin in the third quarter of this year.
The other two are the 8.84km Rangsit-Thammasat University and the 14.8km Taling Chan-Salaya lines.
The former consists of four stations and requires 6.57 billion baht in funding. The Taling Chan-Salaya extension comprises six stations and requires 10.2 billion baht in funding.
Meanwhile, the Taling Chan-Siriraj extension has three stations and requires 6.64 billion baht in funding. Bidding for this extension will be held in the third quarter of 2023.
The final terms of reference (TOR) for the bidding for the first three extensions’ construction concessions is expected in October, while the next process from bidding to hiring the contractors is expected to conclude six to eight months after that, which will be some time between April and June next year, said Mr Chayatham.
Source: https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2323446/srt-told-to-speed-up-walkways-redesign
