Thailand. signing of the contract for the high speed railway connecting three airports
The State Railway of Thailand signed in Bangkok a Memorandum of Understanding with the consortium led by the Thai CP Group for the implementation of the ‘High Speed Rail Linking the Three Airports Project’.
Italy’s Ferrovie dello Stato is part of the CP Group-led consortium.
The project includes the implementation and construction of a 220 kilometre high-speed line connecting the two airports of the capital city, the U Tapao airport in the Eastern Economic Corridor, Bangkok’s new railway station (under construction), some industrial and touristic areas and the deep sea port of Laem Chabang.
The railway line is expected to be operational by 2024.
The contract, which envisages a 50-year concession to the consortium under a public-private partnership (PPP) paradigm, has a value amounting to 6.9 billion euro.
Ferrovie dello Stato has been selected for the Operations and Maintenance of the line, as a sub-contractor of Charoen Pokphand Holding Co. (CP Group, being the leader of the Consortium), China Railway Construction Corporation Limited (CRCC), Italthai (one of the major Thai construction companies), the Thai CH Karnchang, the Bangkiok Expressway and Metro Public Company Limited.
The government’s allocation amounts to 65 percent of the value, while the consortium participates with a 35 percent investment. The project is to be identified as part of the Eastern Economic Corridor.
Foreign Embassies in Italy visit one of Italian air and space excellences
Among the Farnesina’s initiatives to highlight Italian productive excellence, yesterday the institution organised a visit for the representatives of foreign embassies in Italy to the AVIO S.p.A premises.
About 40 respresentatives of trade offices and ambassadors to Italy attended the event which presented one of the major cutting edge segments of Italian air and space industry, specialised in the construction of solid propulsion systems to place contained weight satellites into orbit. The aim was to illustrate to the representatives of the Diplomatic Corps the potentials of the company in the light of the recent demand on the world market of undertakings capable of providing high technology solutions for the increasing trend of miniaturisation of satellites.
The initiative provided an overall picture of Italy’s positioning in the space industry sector. Italy, in fact, hosts one of the six European Space Agency centres and boasts a unique expertise in the space procurement chain, thanks to an industrial sector made up of 250 companies -most of which are SMEs- and a high percentage of micro-enterprises, alongside evidence of a significant growth of start-ups in the past five years.
