State railway sees ‘huge promise’ in 28 land plots

The State Railway of Thailand (SRT) is pinning its hopes on planned commercial development of 38,500 rai of land it owns, including 28 plots with “enormous” potential, to bring in 20 billion baht in revenue over the next four years.
The SRT posted a loss of 17.8 billion baht last year, according to information published by the National Economic and Social Development Council (NESDC). The perennially money-losing state enterprise also has an accumulated debt of about 300 billion baht.
SRT Asset Co, a property management affiliate established in 2020, has so far taken over the management of 12,233 lease contracts covering 38,469 rai of land, SRT governor Veeris Ammarapala said on Wednesday.
The plots are categorised as non-core, meaning they are mot being used for core rail operations or related activities.
The SRT is one of the country’s largest landowners with 240,880 rai in all, nearly 202,000 rai of which is considered core business land. However, not all the non-core business land has the potential to be developed for commercial purposes.
SRT Asset has had minimal activity to date, with revenue last year of just 660,000 baht, according to the NESDC.
Of the 12,233 land lease contracts it has acquired, 5,856 were previously handled by the SRT’s asset management department, 6,369 by the train operations department and the other eight by the signalling and telecommunication department, said Mr Veeris.
SRT Asset is also responsible for finding new land to buy for development purposes and finding private partners to jointly invest in developing existing or new plots, said the governor.
The SRT expects to receive 5% of the net revenue SRT Asset Co makes from all development projects, Mr Veeris said, adding that the SRT would still own the land while the subsidiary would manage it.
The development of 28 plots considered as having high potential is being split into three phases, he said.
Starting next year, the first phase will involve seven plots: the Bang Sue-Klong Tan (RCA) project, Sila At, Klong San Market, Ratchaprarop, Phahon Yothin, Bang Sue Area and the Nong Khai station project, Mr Veeris said.
The other two phases will be carried out from 2026 through 2029, he added.