RANONG, Thailand ¨C Chaiyaporn Arunrasamee hunched over his fishing nets, overlooking the waters ?of the Andaman Sea, where Thailand¡¯s government is proposing an ambitious ¡°Land Bridge¡± that will ferry goods between ports on opposite sides of the peninsula.
¡°Personally, I don¡¯t want it to happen at all,¡± Chaiyaporn said of the project, which Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul has resuscitated after the war in Iran and the closure of the Hormuz Strait highlighted countries¡¯ reliance on strategic maritime chokepoints.
Plans envision a 1 trillion baht ($30.45 billion) logistics corridor to offer an alternative route to the congested Strait of Malacca by connecting two new deep-sea ports: Chumphon, on the Gulf of Thailand to the east, and Ranong, along the western Andaman coast, where Chaiyaporn, 50, has fished for his entire life.
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