Transport and shipping

PetroVietnam Marine Shipyard JSC in the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau, a subsidiary of PetroVietnam, launched a US$230-million jackup rig 13 December.   Tam Dao 05 weighs 18,000 tons and can drill to a depth of nine kilometers.   Keep reading ...

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha told the State Railway of Thailand (SRT) on 14 December to make fares on new mass-transit rail lines affordable for the poor. Presiding over the start the test runs for the for the Purple Line between Bang Yai and Tao Poon, Gen Prayut said ...

The Transport Ministry is planning to review the western section of the Mass Rapid Transit Authority’s (MRTA) Orange Line — from the Thailand Cultural Centre to Taling Chan — after residents refused to relocate. News of the review comes a day after the cabinet approved the construction ...

Last week, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration downgraded the safety rating for the entire Thai aviation system, placing it among those of a handful of countries — including Southeast Asian neighbors Bangladesh and Indonesia — that don’t meet international “minimum safety oversight standards.” Boeing expects Southeast Asian airlines ...

Buses, essentially the only public transport available in Ho Chi Minh City, are turning both passengers and drivers away due to a lack of investment, officials said at a conference on 4 December.   The city’s transport department estimated that the system will have seen nearly 324 million ...

As overcrowding is getting more serious at Vietnam’s largest airport Tan Son Nhat, local aviation authority is now looking to stop receiving new flights during rush hours, a local official said on 5 December.   Dang Tuan Tu, director of the Ho Chi Minh City-based airport, was ...

The winding road between Xieng Khuang and Huaphan provinces in the northern part of the country is steadily being straightened and widened, an official confirmed. An official from the Huaphan provincial Public Works and Transport Department Mr Ounchay Sisaengchan, told Vientiane times on 1 December that each ...

A Chinese-invested cement factory in central Laos was inaugurated on Thursday in Khammouane province, expected to serve the construction of China-Laos railway project in the country. The inaugural ceremony was attended by Lao Deputy Prime Minister Somsavad Lengsavath, who also cut the ribbon for the commencement ...

China has signed rice and rubber purchase deals with Thailand as part of the Thai-Sino railway development agreement. Negotiations over the railway are continuing. The deals were signed at the ninth meeting of the Joint Committee on Railway Cooperation in Bangkok on 3 December. Keep reading ...

The first Southeast Asian rail project to grow out of China’s transcontinental vision for new economic links got underway on 2 December. The president of Laos, Choummaly Sayasone, dug into a tidy pyramid of white sand at the groundbreaking ceremony in Vientiane for a roughly $6 ...