As the monarchy pushes ahead with a long-delayed high-speed rail, one of Thailand’s oldest railway stations faces demolition. This has generated concern about lost ancestors and ties to China.
The new elevated track’s concrete piers rise over bright green rice paddies. Cutting a strip across a tranquil portion of Thailand’s poor, rural northeast.
The $5.4 billion Thailand’s rail will connect Bangkok to Kunming, China, via Laos by 2028. And is part of Beijing’s massive “Belt and Road” infrastructure programme that spans Asia.
Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-Cha, who faces a tough election campaign next month, has pushed for the 600-kilometer (373-mile) railway. As a method to bolster the economy through trade with China.
Thailand’s rail already has about 5,000 kilometers. But the dilapidated network has long encouraged people to choose vehicle transport. Despite the extraordinarily high accident rate.
When the route is finished, Chinese-made trains will travel at up to 250 km/h from Bangkok to Nong Khai, on the Mekong River’s border with Laos.
Heritage conflict –
One of the abandoned stations is in Nakhon Ratchasima, the biggest city in the northeast, which is three and a half hours by road from Bangkok – or nearly five by normal train.
The old station, which was inaugurated by King Rama V in 1900, is fraying at the edges. With stray dogs snoozing beneath tatty wooden chairs – but vibrant posters adorn the walls, proclaiming the bright future of high-speed transit.
“We are not against the high-speed train project, but we want to show that the old and the new can co-exist.” Werapol Chongjareonjai, the chair of an association of Siamese architects in the northeast told AFP.
Werapol wants to turn the site into a tourist spot by shifting some pillars. By a few metres so the new station can be built alongside the old one.
Demolition work was due to begin at the start of the year but Werapol and his fellow activists have managed to delay it.
With the general election looming on May 14, they hope to string the process out further. As officials are reluctant to take decisions until the poll is settled.
“We will try to take advantage of the elections to talk to the candidates,” he added.
Shifting Ground between the US and a Rising China
It is the latest in a series of delays to the project, first proposed to the Thai government back in 2010.
The junta led by Prayut pushed closer ties with China. Leading some to fear that Thailand was abandoning its policy of trying to balance relations with Washington and Beijing.
Eventually, Prayut signed a deal for Thailand to cover all project expenditures, while using China-advised technology.
Benjamin Zawacki, author of “Thailand: Shifting Ground between the US and a Rising China”, says the long delays show that Bangkok is less keen on the project than Beijing, wary of getting drawn too deep into the Belt and Road web.
“The fact that it’s taking this long is some evidence that Thais aren’t overjoyed about it,” he remarked.
High Chinese debts have been a continual source of concern for countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative, and the fact that Thailand is paying for the railway distinguishes it from adjacent Laos, where the Vientiane-Boten line is set to open in 2021.
Beijing covered 70% of the costs, with the Laos government contributing heavily through loans from Chinese banks.
Suthiphand Chirathivat, an economics professor at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, said the delays had aided Thailand in gaining control of the rail project.
“This is now a Thai project in collaboration with China.” “We put our money there because it is our own soil,” he told AFP.
