A planned "Railway Excellence Centre" that will research ways of improving the quality of railway networks and information storage for future high-speed railways will be established by the end of the year, Deputy Transport Minister Pailin Chuchottaworn has confirmed.
He made the comments after presiding over a sub-committee meeting on the centre Wednesday. A public hearing was held in April, when transport authorities floated the idea of having the facility operational before January.
"If possible, we want this to be the last sub-committee meeting on the matter because it has already been delayed too long," Mr Pailin said.
Talks began in 2014 when the State Railway of Thailand was commissioned by the Transport Ministry to introduce a quality-monitoring organisation for the authority's operations.
According to Mr Pailin, Wednesday's meeting concluded that the sub-committee, which will oversee the affairs of the centre, will also include members of the sub-committee from the firm set to manage the Thai-Chinese high-speed railway from Bangkok to Nong Khai.
He added the firm, referred to as a special-purpose entity, must also be set up by the end of December.
One of the centre's first tasks will be to gather know-how from the Thai-Chinese high-speed railway project, he said.
The megaproject's first phase, which will cost 179 billion baht and run from Bangkok to Nakhon Ratchasima, will be overseen by Chinese and Thai authorities. However, as agreed, Thailand will take over the construction, operation and management of the entire second phase from Nakhon Ratchasima to Nong Khai.
A cabinet meeting last July concluded that information gleaned from the high-speed railway must be transferred from Chinese architects and engineers to Thai authorities throughout the duration of the first phase of construction.
"The centre's operations will initially refer to the Thai-Chinese high-speed railway, but in the future it will be responsible for research for all railways in Thailand," Mr Pailin said, adding "it will be the first of its kind".
Meanwhile, a new Department of Rail Transport is tipped to be established by the end of the year, according to the Office of Transport and Traffic Policy and Planning.
