Thailand - Road investment program

RF63 RH 'TO 77, T O 14a REFORTS DES II I copy RESTRICTED This report is restricted to use within the Bank INTERNATIONAL BANK FOR RECONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT THAILAND ROAD INVESTMENT PROGRAM July 8, 1953 Technical Operations Department  I. Present state 'of road transport Existing road network 1. Apart from city streets and routes along irrigation canals, Thailand has 6,440km of national roads (main highways) grouped in various regional systems; 2,400 km of provincial roads (secondary highways), reaching out of the trunk routes, and several thousand km of strictly local roads. In addi- tion, construction is now under way or has recently started on 4,760 km of new main highways and 3,610 km of new provincial roads. 2. Almost three-fourths of the main highway mileage is macadam, laterite, or crushed stone, depending on region. A small fraction, mostly near Bangkok, is asphalt or concrete. At the other extreme, another small fraction is nat- ural earth. 3. More than 95% of the main highway mileage is of narrow width not above 5 meters. About a third, in fact, is only 3 meters wide or even narrower. Only 214 km out of the total of 6,440 is 6 meters wide or broader. 4. The provincial roads, by and large, are low-grade routes built to the barest specifications (surface, width, drainage, etc.) consistent with their use by motor vehicles. Almost half the mileage is laterite or gravel (per- mitting year-round utilization in certain areas) but more than half is earth. Throughout the country with a few exceptions, the local roads are mere cart tracks which cannot be used for commercial motor haulage at all. 5. Each major productive area has its own regional network of main high- ways, supplemented by a loose mesh of provincial roads. The regional networks, however, are dispersed and separ~ te without adequate connecting links, A nationwide system of interlinked routes fit to carry a large volume of inter- regional truck and bus traffic still remains to he created. No region as yet has an adequate system of feeder, access,and farm-to-market roads fanning out of the towns and villages. 6. The entire network of national, provincial, and local roads has been deliberately laid out so as to supplement rather than compete with the State- owned railroads. Where both roads and railways run between the same towns, they traverse different areas in doing so. Certain areas are interlinked entirely by road; others entirely by rail. Almost all the roads feed into railheads where they help to generate railroad traffic. Administrative organization 7. Responsibility for the construction, improvement, and maintenance of the main highways is vested in the State Highway Department .attached to the Minis- try of Communications. It is headed by a Director General who exerciees his functions through a headquarters staff (technical, administrative, and highway engineering branches) and a nationwide field organization (12 field divisions, each subdivided into several districts). The broad functional structure fol- lows the recommendations of a 1950 ECAFE survey, except as regards responsibi- lity for provincial roads. These were formerly under the Highway Department but are presently under the Public Works Department of the Ministry of Inter- ior. This Department is also nominally responsible for the local roads.  - 2 - 8. City streets are partly a Public Works responsibility, partly a municip- al responsibility. Certain routes alongside irrigation canals are under the Irrigation Department. 9. According to the best estimates of the Missionts road experts, there are about 30,000 civilian-owned vehicles (excluding motorcycles) in Thailand at present. In addition at least 3,000 Government-owned vehicl6s are in operation including 1,200 which are owned by the Highway Department. Some 18,000 civilian vehicles or three-fifths of the total, are concentrated in Bangkok - Thomburi, and about 12,000 or two-fifths, are scattered in up- country areas. About half the civilian vehicles are passenger cars, taxis, and station wagons and about half are trucks and buses. From 1949 to date, the fleet has been growing at the rate of 10%-15% per annum. 10. Most of the road traffic moves along a few routes, particularly those leading out of Bangkok in the Central Plain, out of Chiengmai-Lampoon in the North, and out of Songkla-Haadyai in the South. Near the largest towns, e.g., for a radius of 50 km around Bangkok, there is heavy traffic density, ranging from several hundred to several thousand motor vehicles a day. Almost every- where else, traffic density thins out to a few vehicles an hour or even less. Certain inland communities which the Mission visited had only a handful of cars, trucks, or buses while certain road stretches which the Mission travers- ed had almost no motor traffic. 11. In and close to Bangkok, the traffic is mainly passenger transport by private car, taxi, motorcycle, bicycle, and samlor. Some distance outside the city, bus and truck traffic begins to predominate. Upcountry, through- out Thailand, the bulk of the traffic is commercial haulage by trucks carry- ing goods only and by buq'trucks carrying goods as well as passengers. 12. These differences in the regional nature of traffic are readily appar- ent from the regional composition of the fleet. Trucks, e.g., compose 754-80% of the upcountry vehicles but only 20% of the 3angkok-Thomburi vehicles. More than two-thirds of the Bangkok vehicles but less than 20% of the upcountry vehicles are passenger cars. 13. Throughout Thailand, road transport is predominantly local in the sense of short-haul buses moving passengers between nearby towns and short- haul trucks moving food, materials, and supplies to nearby markets, processing plants, and terminals. Some of the heaviest movements of truck-hauled goods include rice, perishable produce, charcoal, and firewood for the supply of large towns; paddy haulage to rice mills and log haulage to sawmills; tin ore, rubber, and sawn lumber inbound to railheads and ports, and petroleum products outbound from them; and fodder, imports, and general goods for dis- tribution to nearby villages. In addition to commercial haulage, there is also an intense service traffic arising out of road construction and improve- ment. It includes contractor-owned trucks as well as Highway Department trucks, carrying stone, laterite, asphalt, petroleum, and other supplies. 14. In contrast, there is practically no inter-regional road transport ex- cept along a few routes (e.g., Bangkok-Chantaburi) penetrating areas outside the railroad network. A large volume of inter-regioil trade does exist, e.g., the inflow into Bsngkok of rice, lumber, and firewood, but it moves largely by rail, river barge, or coastal craft. The bulk of the inter-regional pass-  enger traffic converging on Bangkok is rail-hauled. Truck transport costs 15. Although the Mission could not make a detailed study of road transport charges, some spot checks in various areas indicate that truck haulage is about as ex-oensive in Thailand as in most other underdeveloped countries with inadequate roads. Truck haulage costs comprise 5%-15%, e.g., of the value of paddy and manioc delivered to local mills; add 50%-100 to the purchase price of charcoal at the kiln; rise to multiples of value at origin for cheap commodities such as logs and stone; but drop to insignificant ratios for ex- pensive commodities such as cured tobacco and fish-oil sauce. 16. Ton-mile costs vary widely depending on nature of terrain, condition of roads, and volume of return freight. In exceptionally good circumstances, e.g., the trunk route haulage of paddy in the Korat Plateau and of charcoal in the Bangkok hinterland, they run as low as 4t-5