The State Railway of Thailand (SRT) plans to auction off three big blocks of land in inner Bangkok with a total area of 942 rai by early next year, and expects to get cabinet approval around the middle of this year.
Thakoon Intrarachom, the SRT’s assets management director, said the state agency had already organised a public hearing to gauge private sector interest in the land.
The assets are 305.5 rai in Bang Sue, 359 rai at Nikom km11 on Phahon Yothin road, and 277.5 rai at Menam train station near Rama 4 road.
The SRT is sounding out the market first and will then present a proposal to the cabinet for approval by June at the latest, Mr Thakoon said. About 50 real estate companies had shown an interest in the land at Nikom km11 when sounded out on Thursday.
Vineeta Kalyanamitra, a building planner from the National Institute of Development Administration which was hired to advise the project, said it was possible the Nikom km11 land would be divided into five zones - three zones totalling 279 rai to be be offered for private sector investment, and the SRT would develop the two remaining zones itself.
Five years ago, a study had estimated the cost of this block of land at 100 billion baht. However, Ms Vineeta believed the investment would be higher now because of changes in town planning.