Plans to build a 100-kilometer-long canal between the Gulf of Thailand and the Andaman Sea are frequently proposed but often cancelled. It's just that the current idea is to build two ports connected by rail instead of waterway.

The Minister of Transport of Thailand stated that the Thai government has approved a budget of US$5.3 million to study the plan. The connection across the Kra Isthmus will bypass the increasingly crowded Strait of Malacca, a narrow body of water between the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra, at the southeastern tip of Singapore. The Kra Isthmus is the narrowest place in the Malay Peninsula.

About a quarter of the world’s traded goods pass through the strait, and the construction of the canal will ease this pressure and shorten the sea route between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific by approximately 1,100 kilometers. However, it turns out that the estimated cost of the project of $28 billion is prohibitive, and once completed, it will require continuous dredging for maintenance.

Thai Transport Minister Saksham Chichob said in an interview that the Thai government may establish two deep-water ports on the peninsula and connect them with a railway and a highway. Compared with a 400m wide canal, this is cheaper and has less damage to the environment.

Chi Job said: "Using an alternative route through Thailand will reduce the transit time by more than two days, which is very valuable to the business."

The canal project has received support from China, which is seeking to reduce its dependence on the Strait of Malacca. In 2015, China and Thailand signed a memorandum of understanding. Thailand began to build Highway 44 across the Kra Isthmus in the 1990s. This corridor has been completed, there is enough space to lay railways and pipelines, but it is not yet connected to the port.

The map roughly shows the location of the Kra Isthmus transport linkEditor/Huang Lijun