The board of the State Railway of Thailand has endorsed the winning bids for two sections of the Bangkok to Nakhon Ratchasima as part of the government's high-speed railway project.
Chirute Visalachitra, chairman of the board, said the two sections are the 26.1-kilometre Bandai Ma-Lam Ta Khong section and the 13.3-kilometre Ban Pho-Phra Kaew stretch.
Krungthon Engineering Company offered the lowest bid for the Bandai Ma-Lam Ta Khong section at approximately 9.8 billion baht against the median price of about 12 billion, while Italian-Thai Development Company offered about 10 billion for Ban Pho-Phra Kaew, against about 12 billion.
Mr Chirute said the board has yet to approve the outcome of bidding for the 13.7-kilometre Khrok Kruad-Nakhon Ratchasima railway project pending bidder clarification from the Department of the Comptroller-General.
SPTK Joint Venture offered the lowest bid for the project at about 7.7 billion baht against the reference price of about 9.2 billion, but the company is a newly registered consortium.
Additionally, Mr Chirute said the SRT board has agreed to postpone the signing of "Contract 2.3" for the high-speed railway to October.
The signing of the 50.6-billion-baht contract was originally scheduled to take place by May 30, but it cannot proceed due to a disagreement over the cost of tracks, a signalling system and procurement of carriages.
Mr Chirute said the 155-day extension will be submitted to the Transport Ministry and cabinet for approval.