Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha will sign a 3.5 billion baht construction supervision contract for the Thai-Chinese railway project on Monday during his visit to China.
Gen Prayut is scheduled to attend the BRICS Summit, a meeting involving the leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa in Xiamen, China on Monday and Tuesday next week.
The contract received the green light from the cabinet yesterday, Transport Minister Arkhom Termpittayapaisith said.
Both parties in the railway project have agreed on two contracts worth a total of 5.2 billion baht in design and supervision fees for the Bangkok-Nakhon Ratchasima rail project.
Earlier, the cabinet approved a contract concerning the project's design and planning stages valued at 1.7 billion baht.
The construction budget has been set at 119 billion baht, Mr Arkhom said, adding that a 3% consultancy fee was "reasonable".
The budget for the 253-kilometre high-speed train project is 179 billion baht.
Engineering workshops will be provided in Tianjin, China for the 430 Thai engineers who are due to work on the project. They will commence from Sept 22, Mr Arkhom said earlier.
Funded by China, they will include lessons in how to operate and maintain Electric Multiple Unit trains, he said.
These are self-propelled carriages that do not require a separate locomotive.
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