Developer starts building transit

Developer starts building transit

BANGKOK (Reuter): Thai developer Tanayong Plc yesterday started building a mass transit system designed to slice through the key residential and commercial sections of Bangkok, as part of an effort to relieve the traffic-snarled capital.

Thailand's Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn presided over a Buddhist ceremony in monsoon showers to start test construction down the middle of busy Rajadamri Road in the heart of Bangkok.

If all goes well in the next three months of construction on that stretch of road, government authorities will give the go- ahead for building to start on a massive scale, Tanayong executive director Edward Chow told reporters after the ceremony.

The 35 billion baht ($1.4 billion) project, an elevated light railway to run down the residential roads of Phahonyothin and Sukhumvit and through the key commercial avenue of Silom, is one of three mass transit systems planned for the capital.