Ship canal planned in Southern Thailand

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32967, 13 July 1972, Page 15

Ship canal planned in Southern Thailand

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter —Copyright) BANGKOK, July 11. The Thai ruling National Executive Council has decided to build a ship canal across the Kra Isthmus in southern Thailand. The decision was announced last night by Mr Nitipat Jalichan, secretary-general of the National Energy Authority (N.E.A.), who said that

the project would cost about 9,000 million baht (SNZ3BS million) and take nine years to complete. The canal across the narrowest part of the peninsula between the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Thailand will open an alternative shipping route to the congested Straits of Malacca and cut hundreds of miles off the present route for Japan supertankers plying between Japan and the Middle East. Mr Nitipat said that the 97mile canal proposed by the N.E.A. would connect Pangalla Bay in the Indian Ocean with Banndon Bay in the Gulf of Thailand. The canal would be 120 yards wide with five navigational locks and reservoir. Mr Nitipat said that the N.E.A. would complete preliminary surveys of the area within six months at an estimated cost of 500,000 baht (about SNZ2I,OOO). Engineering and technical surveys would take three years and actual construction another six years, he added. The canal project was first mooted before World War II and was warmly welcomed by Japan, then a rising military power. But the Thai Government shelved the plan on security grounds. The Western Powers also opposed the canal, especially Britain, which controlled the Straits of Malacca from its Singapore naval base. General Praphas Charusathien, deputy chairman of the National Executive Council (N.E.C.) said recently that with the passing of the colonial era Kra Canal would no longer pose much of a security threat to any : nation. Mr Nitipat said that once the project was completed i

an oil pipeline across the isthmus proposed by Japan would not be needed because 100,000-ton oil tankers would be able to ship crude oil from 500,000-ton tankers in the Indian Ocean through the canal. He said that half the oil tankers and one-third of the cargo ships now using the congested Straits of Malacca were expected to turn to the projected canal for passage. He said that the project would be evaluated purely on economic grounds. Mr Pote Sarasin, assistant chairman of the N.E.C., has said that a canal would be built entirely with Thai capital. The now discarded alternative—an oil pipeline across the isthmus—would have used Japanese finance.

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A big increase in the number of calls being handled by Youthline in Christchurch may lead to the installation of a second telephone line, the organising committee says in the latest issue of the Christchurch Central Methodist Mission magazine, “Enterprise.” The committee is also considering increasing the hours the service is manned. Youthline—a “youth to youth” friendship and advice service—runs only until 11 p.m. weekly, starting at 4 p.m. on weekdays, 10 a.m. on Saturdays, and 2 p.m. on Sundays. Outside these hours, a recorded answering service tells callers to get in touch with Lifeline if there is an emergency.