00:00Fisher folk in southern Thailand are among those opposed to a new transport corridor
00:05that has been pitched as an alternative to the sea route in the Strait of Malacca.
00:09The $30.45 billion project envisions rail and road links slicing across
00:1556 miles of a peninsula to connect two new seaports.
00:19A plan that has been revived by Prime Minister Anutin Chawi Rakhoun
00:23after the war in Iran and the closure of the Hormuz Strait
00:26highlighted countries' reliance on strategic maritime choke points.
00:31The land bridge would allow cargo to unload in the fishing areas of Chum Phong
00:35on the Gulf of Thailand to the east, travel overland
00:38and then get loaded back onto freighters in Rao Nang along the western Andaman coast.
00:43It would bring container ships and roadways to an area of fisheries and farmland,
00:48potentially upending both.
00:50I don't want it to happen at all because it's in the area where all of us have to make
00:54a living.
00:55If the land bridge were to happen, I don't know where we would go.
00:58The place to live we might be able to find, but not the place to make a living and feed
01:02our families.
01:04There's also a difference of opinion over whether the project makes economic sense.
01:08This coffee business owner says his numbers suggest the project would take 25 years just to break even.
01:14Meanwhile, durian from his village already generates about $303 million a year
01:19without additional infrastructure.
01:22Manotsukwan Netwichai, an advisor for the Regional Chamber of Commerce, says the project will bring in money.
01:28When the land bridge comes, it will create jobs and livelihoods.
01:32Some say it will add around 200,000 positions.
01:35Related business will grow.
01:36A government report seen by Reuters says the corridor could reduce logistics costs by nearly 30 per cent
01:43and cut transit times by up to 14 days for cargo going between China and ports in South Asia and
01:49the Middle East.
01:50But to be viable, cargo liners would have to accept the financial and time costs of unloading, moving goods over
01:57land
01:57and reloading them onto another vessel.
02:00Eugene Mark at Singapore's ISIAS Yousof Ishak Institute sees the land bridge being more of a national security asset,
02:07aimed at securing local energy routes and boosting Thailand's own western export capabilities.
02:14Regulators have ordered a new environmental and health impact assessment
02:17because of a large discrepancy between government and private research at the proposed sites.
02:22A Thai government-appointed panel reviewing the project is due to submit its findings before the end of July.
