SRT contracts consultant for airport link

       The State Railway of Thailand is paying a consultancy 85 million baht to help it prepare for its Airport Rail Link.
       The overseas consultancy would train 450 staff and draw up instructions and regulations for the system, which would shuttle between the inner city and Suvarnabhumi airport from next April.
       SRT chairman Thawalrat Onsira said the SRT board voted yesterday to hire DB International GmbH (DBI) for 85 million baht.
       The consultancy would test the Airport Rail Link and train airport link staff over the course of its nine-month contract. It would also draw up instructions and regulations to run the trains.
       Chulalongkorn University's Sasin Graduate Institute of Business Administration would recruit 450 staff for the SRT to operate the Airport Rail Link in particular, and the consultants would train them.
       The SRT wanted to hire SRT, Bangkok Mass Transit System Plc (BTS) and Bangkok Metro Plc staff. The latter two operate electric railways in Bangkok.
       Mr Thawalrat said construction company B Grimm International would hand the Airport Rail Link system together with trains to the SRT on Nov 6 this year and the first tentative operation was set for Dec 5.
       After the one-day trial, officials would evaluate the operation and then resume trial runs from Dec 15 to April next year, when the service would open.
       The number of passengers would be limited during the trial operation.Tickets would be distributed first to workers at Suvarnabhumi airport while the public could seek tickets at main stations of the link. Express trains would operate between Makkasan and the airport, a 15-minute journey without stops, while a trip on ordinary trains with stops at all stations en route would take 30 minutes.
       The SRT would ask the cabinet to decide whether to support its plan to set up a subsidiary to run the Airport Rail Link or back the SRT labour union's demand for the state enterprise to establish a business unit to run the railway.
       Meanwhile, the Mass Rapid Transit Authority (MRTA) yesterday signed a contract to hire CKTC Joint Venture for 14.29 billion baht to build the eastern section of the Purple Line electric railway from Bang Sue to Phra Nang Klao Bridge.
       MRTA chairman Supoj Saplom said the contractor, made up of Ch Karnchang Plc and Tokyu Construction Co, would start construction in 60 days,with work lasting 3.5 to four years.
       The eastern section would extend from the MRTA's present subway end in Bang Sue to Phra Nang Klao Bridge.
       The MRTA would sign two more contracts for the rest of the Purple Line project, opening in 2014.
       The second contract was for the 11km elevated western section across the Chao Phraya River from Phra Nang Klao Bridge to Klong Bang Phai canal in Nonthaburi's Bang Yai district.
       Sino-Thai Engineering and Construction won the work, quoted at 15.32 billion baht.
       The last contract is for a train depot and four park-and-ride buildings, won by PAR Joint Venture, which quoted 6.4 billion baht.