Highway Fee Bangkok

[Toney Talbot]

Fromcolonial dominance to global collaboration: A supply chain journey

In the intricate tapestry of the global manufacturing supply chain, individual triumphs are a rarity. As Rudyard Kipling famously observed, "The strength of the pack is the wolf, and the strength of the wolf is the pack."

The colonial approach to supply chain dominance, as articulated by scholars like Andre Gunder Frank and Dadabhai Naoroji, unveils a stark reality of resource flow from the periphery to the nucleus. Frank's Center-Periphery Argument and Naoroji's Drain Theory shed light on the mechanisms employed by colonial powers, including project finance, unfair trade terms, dumping, and contract non-compliance, all aimed at extracting value from marginalized regions.

Bridging borders: The Kolkata-Bangkok Highway Project details

Spanning a length of 2820 kilometers and traversing through the picturesque landscapes of India, Myanmar, and Thailand, the Kolkata-Bangkok Highway is anticipated to be completed by 2027. The project is poised to significantly enhance connectivity and trade dynamics across South and Southeast Asia.

Recognizing the need for specialized mechanisms, NITI Ayog, is spearheading the establishment of a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV). This entity will serve as a dedicated platform for project financing, leveraging both public and private sector resources to ensure the timely and successful execution of the highway.

Driving economic growth: Benefits of the Kolkata-Bangkok Highway Project

The Kolkata-Bangkok Highway project holds immense promise for catalyzing economic development across the regions it traverses.

East is the steel hub of India- Odisha, West Bengal, & Jharkhand, collectively contributing to 40% to India's total steel output. Also, the region is now poised to be at the forefront of sustainable supply chain transformation thanks to green steel and green hydrogen projects, including Angul, Odisha-green steel, Sikkim being positioned as India's first green hydrogen city and the evolving solar PV module manufacturing landscape in West Bengal.

The Indian Government is pump priming capital expenditure into major infrastructure projects in the East and North East regions, fostering interconnectivity. Notable examples include the USD 1.4 Bn Kharagpur-Siliguri-Moregram Expressway in West Bengal, the USD 482 mn Sivok (West Bengal) to Rangpo (Sikkim) rail route, and the INR USD 1.4Bn Jiribham-Imphal rail route.

Once this local infra is connected to the Kolkata-Bangkok Highway, it will expedite RoCE for GOI and reduce the payback period of infra capex. Further it will offer a road-transport-based alternative to the existing maritime route along the Bay of Bengal, decongest unwanted inventory accumulation at choking points like the Haldia port, Vizag Port, Paradip port, and may also reduce freight cargo costs.

+1 Strategic sourcing model: Better than Tianxia

The Kolkata-Bangkok Highway project stands as a testament to the power of collaboration and regional cooperation in driving economic growth and connectivity. By collectively addressing the challenges and seizing the opportunities presented by such a monumental infrastructure endeavor, India, Myanmar, and Thailand exemplify a commitment to mutual prosperity and shared development. As the project moves towards completion, the benefits of enhanced connectivity, trade facilitation, and economic upliftment are poised to transform the landscape of South and Southeast Asia, unlocking new avenues for growth and prosperity for generations to come.

The Thai highway network follows the left-hand traffic rule of the road. The network is the twin responsibility of the Department of Highways (DOH, Thai: กรมทางหลวง, Krom Thang Luang), and the Department of Rural Roads (DORR, กรมทางหลวงชนบท, Krom Thang Luang Chonnabot), under the oversight of the Transportation ministry of Thailand. Public highways (ทางหลวง, thang luang) are also called public roads (ถนนหลวง, thanon luang), especially when part of urban streets. The network spans over 70,000 kilometers across all regions of Thailand.[1]Most are single carriageways. Dual carriageways have frequent u-turn lanes and intersections slowing down traffic. Coupled with the increase in the number of vehicles and the demand for a limited-access motorway, the Thai Government issued a Cabinet resolution in 1997 detailing the motorway construction master plan.[2] Some upgraded sections of highway are being turned into a "motorway", while other motorways are not being built from highway sections.

A rural highway (Thai: ทางหลวงชนบท) or rural road is a highway for which the Department of Rural Roads carries out construction, expansion, upkeep and repairs. Registration of rural highways is overseen by the Director General of the DORR.

A local highway (Thai: ทางหลวงท้องถิ่น) or local route is a highway for which the local administrative organization carries out construction, expansion, upkeep and repairs. Registration of rural highways is overseen by the provincial governor.

A concession highway (Thai: ทางหลวงสัมปทาน) is a highway for which a legal government concession has been granted. Registration of concession highways is overseen by the Director General of the DOH.

Four digits indicate an intra-province highway connecting a provincial capital to its districts, or between important sites, such as northern Route 1001 between the Route 11 intersection and Amphoe Phrao, and southern Route 4006 between the Route 4 intersection (Ratchakrut) and Lang Suan.[4]

Signs may be black-on-white or gold-on-blue, with a two-letter province designation prefixed to the road number. Depicted is SK. 3015, for a rural road in Songkhla Province. The rural road network measures some 35,000 kilometres (22,000 mi), about 82 percent of which is paved. The Department of Rural Roads of the Ministry of Transport takes care of the maintenance of all the rural roads in Thailand.[5]

Walking in Bangkok is a messy experience. It is impossible to predict a change of grade or width of sidewalk under your feet. That is if there is a sidewalk. Similarly it is impossible to predict if the next building you walk past will be a shop house, condominium, bungalow, abandoned orchard, construction site, shopping mall or factory. Never mind the vendors, carts or motorcycle taxis. Or the many little pots filled with water, fish and lotus, or soil and flowering plants. It feels as if the whole city could be classified as mixed-use or just perfectly heterogeneous. Viewing the city from a car on one of the elevated highways, or from the skytrain it appears as a dense mix of tall and short buildings, sometimes in clusters, or almost a row but most often scattered. I find the assortment intellectually interesting, as when I walk I feel alert and engaged. From close up and afar, it is a beautiful mess. And my Thai students agree.

I also focused on the periphery because I observed an emerging pattern: megablocks form in the periphery in ways that were different than what I had observed in China and India. I also learnt from two bodies of research that I titled Bangkok Solid and Bangkok Liquid, as well as Grahame Shanes short history of the megablock [See references at the bottom].

The future skytrain and fast boat city is embedded within a bigger and much longer historical transition from the slow water-based city to the car-based city. This is described as the shift from fluid khlongs to clogged roads (Sintusingha 2010). This is also a shift from the tributary political system of the Kingdom to the nation-state, and marks the subsequent decline of the water-body, an imagined national geo-body (McGrath et al 2013). It also marks the transformation from the distributary water system of the urban-agricultural delta from the cultivation of rice to a global network for exporting electronics and automobiles (McGrath et al 2013).

Bangkok grew historically along its khlongs, these long corridors formed a type of linear urbanism because canals were often filled in to create roads, or roads were built parallel to the canals. In addition thanons (roads) that ignored pre-existing land patterns were built to link distant provinces. Since the 1950s and today, rural land adjacent to new roads is developed as part of the car-based city. Soi (alleys or local feeders) are built to connect to old water-based temples, and villages. Soi are also built to create land development estates or housing development estates. The landowners build soi that follow agrarian land ownership patterns, therefore each landowner individually and varyingly participates in the piecemeal development of the their rice paddies into Bangkoks suburb (Sintusingha 2006). With the recent construction of the ring road and the new airport [See image 4: pink lines and pink zone] these radial corridors with their maze like soi are being increasingly interconnected at the periphery. Today a finer grain of connector roads that link old linear corridors have been built, and many more are proposed in the future [See image 4: red lines].

And so It is in this context that students designed urban design practices that might shape one megablock differently, and allow them to rethink the periphery of Bangkok. Below are six edited examples of the work and a conclusion to this workshop report.

Our proposal is to interrupt the soi with movable gates. This is not a shut down like a protest or the creation of a private enclave, but a break in the street system. We want to rearrange its mechanics. The result could be increased privacy for the local people, more plants and water gardens in pots, trellises for shade or food, and an increase in micro-economies such as motorcycle taxis, roaming cart shops, food vendors and expanded areas to accommodate temple festivals [See image 7].

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