New Sa Kaeo checkpoint to take shape next year

New Sa Kaeo checkpoint to take shape next year

An area at Nong Ian village in Sa Kaeo's Aranyaprathet district is earmarked as the site for a new border checkpoint in this border province. The planned new border checkpoint will facilitate cross-border trade and ease traffic at the Rong Kluea market. (Photo by Sawat Ketngam)
An area at Nong Ian village in Sa Kaeo's Aranyaprathet district is earmarked as the site for a new border checkpoint in this border province. The planned new border checkpoint will facilitate cross-border trade and ease traffic at the Rong Kluea market. (Photo by Sawat Ketngam)

SA KAEO - Construction of the planned border checkpoint near Rong Kluea market in Aranyaprathet district is likely to begin next year, a leading member of the Sa Kaeo provincial trade body said on Wednesday.

The new checkpoint at Nong Ian village in tambon Tha Kham, about 10km south of Rong Kluea market, will facilitate cross-border trade and ease congestion at the border market, said Pramuan Khiewkham, secretary-general of the Sa Kaeo Chamber of Commerce.

Thailand and Cambodia had agreed to construct the new checkpoint between Nong Ian in Sa Kaeo and Stung Bot in Bantheay Meanchey province. The government has already approved a budget for the construction but the contractor who won the bid has not yet started the work.

Songkram Pholkerd, secretary-general of the Democrat Party’s Sa Kaeo branch office, said there was no border demarcation problem at the planned Nong Ian-Stung Bot border checkpoint. The border area was demarcated by a canal.

The two countries had agreed that the area between Nong Ian and Stung Bot was more suitable for the new border checkpoint, which would be built in parallel with the Khlong Luek border checkpoint, he said.

News about the construction has pushed the land prices in the area and several villagers wanted to sell their plots, with the asking prices ranging from 400,000 and one million baht per rai, said Mr Songkram.

He warned the landowners against selling all of their plots as they would have no land left to farm on. 

Meanwhile, a government panel on Wednesday visited tambon Parai in Sa Kaeo’s Aranyaprathet district to follow up on a development plan to turn this border district as a special economic zone.

Gen Worapong Sanganate, chairman of the committee tasked with following up on the progress of the Sa Kaeo special economic zone, said the panel visited the area as it wanted to obtain first-hand information about problems that might obstruct the project.

In the initial phase of the project, some 600 rai of land has been earmarked as an industrial zone in the province, said Gen Worapong. 

Mr Surasak Rattanatham, mayor of tambon Parai municipality, said there would be a major change at the special economic zone in October as budgets would be injected into the area for infrastructure development.  

Similarly, land prices in tambon Parai have skyrocketed from 10,000 baht a rai to one million baht after the area was chosen.

Besides, a new border checkpoint would soon be opened at Nong Ian to facilitate large cargo trucks and ease traffic congestion on main routes, said the mayor. A railway link was also being built in the area, he added.

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