SRT told to start earning

The Transport Ministry has instructed the State Railway of Thailand (SRT) to improve its income-generating capacity to pay off its more than 160-billion-baht debt, Transport Minister Saksayam Chidchob said on Thursday.

At a meeting on Tuesday to follow up on progress to establish an affiliate of the SRT to specifically manage the state enterprise’s assets, particularly its land of about 40,000 rai, the minister said he told the SRT to learn from PTT Plc’s model of asset management to ensure agility in the SRT’s new affiliate.

Tuesday’s meeting was the second one on establishing an SRT affiliate since the cabinet approved it, he said, adding that the affiliate will be called Rotfai Phatthana Sinsap Co.

Currently the SRT earns only about 2 billion baht a year, or less than 1% of the market value of its land, while its accumulated debt has already surpassed 160…