The construction progress of the first phase of the China Thailand high-speed railway project has been continuously affected due to issues such as land acquisition, design scheme adjustments, and coordination of world heritage sites. As of the end of February 2026, the overall completion of civil engineering projects implemented by the Thai side is about 51.74%, which is about 28.26% behind the original plan. As a result, the construction period of the online project undertaken by the Chinese side may be adjusted accordingly. Currently, China and Thailand are conducting consultations on optimizing construction arrangements and adjusting contract terms. However, the Thai side still stated that it will maintain the overall goal of the project being completed and opened to traffic by 2030.

Anan, Deputy Director and Acting Director of the State Railway of Thailand, introduced that the first phase of the China Thailand high-speed railway project, from Bangkok to Nakhon Ratchasima, has a total length of 250.77 kilometers and a total investment of approximately 179.4 billion Thai baht. The offline civil engineering of the project is led by a Thai enterprise for construction. Currently, the overall construction progress has not reached the plan, and there are also difficulties such as poor land transfer. The State Railway of Thailand is accelerating the review and coordination of relevant issues to promote the acceleration of project construction.

Due to the delay in civil engineering, the online engineering contract 2.3, which the Chinese side is responsible for, including the track, four electric systems, high-speed trains, and personnel training, is facing schedule adjustments. The contract was signed in October 2020, with a contract amount of approximately 50.6 billion Thai baht and an original planned construction period of 64 months. Due to the unfinished civil engineering, the system construction site cannot be delivered, and the notice to commence the second phase has not been issued yet. Currently, the overall progress of the project is only about 1.18%.

Negotiate and adjust the plan for phased handover

In this situation, the State Railway of Thailand is negotiating with the Chinese side to adjust the implementation plan, intending to change the original one-time delivery mode of the construction area to phased handover, so that the system engineering can enter the construction site in batches. At present, the two parties have not reached a final agreement on the adjustment of the contract. Keywords: China Thailand high-speed railway, delayed construction period, civil engineering

The civil engineering project of the first phase of the China Thailand high-speed railway is divided into 14 contract packages, of which 2 have been completed, 10 are under construction, and the remaining 2 have not yet signed contracts. There are three contracts that still need to be reviewed by the new Thai cabinet, and there is a risk of cost adjustment and uncertain approval for the projects. Among them, due to local requirements, some ground lines in sections 3-5 will be changed to elevated form, resulting in an increase of about 2 billion Thai baht in construction costs, which needs to be submitted to the Thai Cabinet for approval; Sections 4-5 are affected by the World Cultural Heritage protection regulations, and the Dachengfu Station needs to be redesigned and re tendered. A new round of bidding is expected to be launched in mid-2026; Section 4-1 needs to wait for the completion of the modification of the franchise agreement due to the shared infrastructure design with the Three Airport High Speed Rail Project. In addition, some sections of the road are still under investigation due to construction accidents, further slowing down the overall construction progress.Editor/Gong Ziwei