The Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) Office is calling for the state-run Port Authority of Thailand (PAT) to explain the lack of interest in the third phase of the Laem Chabang port in Chon Buri province after the 114-billion-baht megaproject had only one company submit a bid envelope.
The document submission deadline was Monday and Associate Infinity Co was the only company to submit a bid envelope after 32 companies bought envelopes earlier.
Of those, 17 companies were local firms and 15 firms were from overseas.
The meeting between the two agencies is scheduled for Jan 21, and the EEC Office expects to extend the document submission period by another month.
The PAT reported Associate Infinity did not pass the bidding criteria.
Kanit Sangsubhan, secretary-general of the EEC Office, said the PAT has to explain the lack of investor interest for this megaproject and figure out a solution.
"The period to prepare this project was only two months, which was not enough for the bidding companies to plan their documents," he said.
"We received 10 inquiries from bidding companies to extend the submission period."
The third phase of the Laem Chabang deep-sea port consists of two piers for cargo ships, designated as F1 and F2.
The F1 pier is estimated to cost 84 billion baht, with the total cost projected at 114 billion.
Construction for the third phase is scheduled to begin in 2020, with operation starting in 2025.
The Laem Chabang port is operated by PAT and located in Sri Racha district, Chon Buri, one of the provinces under the flagship EEC scheme.
According to the EEC Office, once the port completes the third phase, it will increase from 7.7 million throughput containers per year to 18.1 million containers per year in the next decade.
The number of car exports at the port is projected to increase from 2 million units to 3 million per year after the upgrade.
The amount of container shipments via railway will grow from 7% to 30% in the next decade.
Mr Kanit said the EEC Office is confident the lack of interest in the Laem Chabang port project will not affect the other four megaprojects in the corridor.
The other four EEC megaprojects are: the U-tapao aviation city (worth 290 billion baht); a maintenance, repair and overhaul centre (10.59 billion); the third phase of the Map Ta Phut seaport (55.4 billion); and a high-speed railway linking three airports (225 billion).
"The EEC Office expects to announce the winning bidders of all five projects by April," he said.