Â
The Highways Department is hastening the building of the 96-kilometer Motorway M81, which will link Bang Yai in the province of Nonthaburi with Kanchanaburi province. As of right now, 14 of the 25 sections, which cover a total of 70 kilometers, have been finished.
According to Sarawut Songsivilai, the Director-General of the Highways Department, the completion of all 25 sections is anticipated to take place in January 2024. Following this, the highway will be available for a free trial run that will last for three months. The total cost of the project is estimated to be over 56 billion baht, and it is anticipated that it will be ready for use in January 2025.
The importance of the four to six traffic lanes on the Motorway M81, which serves as the commerce and logistics gateway for western Thailand, cannot be overstated. The highway connects Kanchanapisek Road in the Bang Yai district with Highway 324, which travels from Kanchanaburi to the Phanom Thuan district via Bangkok, Nonthaburi, and Nakhon Pathom.
On the highway, the installation of a toll collection system and the control of traffic will be handled through the employment of a model that is based on a public-private partnership. The private sector partner that will be selected for the investment and management of the eight toll gates and the highway with an anticipated total investment of 27.8 billion baht will be decided upon. In addition, a private business will be selected to build and administer three rest places for a period of thirty years, and bids are scheduled to be received by the end of the year 2023. The total cost of this endeavor is predicted to be 6.4 billion baht.
