Thailand : Climate-Resilient Connectivity for the Eastern Economic Corridor Project: The Intercity Motorway No. 7 (Extension to Link with U-Tapao International Airport)

The U-Tapao International Airport is the core infrastructure of the EEC and its expansion project is to be implemented via Public-Private Partnership modality. Land transport network connecting the U-Tapao International Airport in the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) to the rest of the Pattaya City and country cannot adapt to changing needs as a result of the expansion plan of the airport due to the limitations of the existing land transport network to cope with traffic increase. Such restrictions may also lead to wasteful use of fossil fuels and avoidable greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and slow down sustainable growth. The proposed project will promote establishment of the EEC by completing the transport network connecting the U-Tapao International Airport to the rest of the EEC area and the Eastern provinces of the country. The link is part of extensive road and railway expansion program in the EEC that will be progressed in phases. It will support efficient movement of people and goods of the EEC and contribute to the targets in Thailand 4.0 in achieving innovation and value-based industry to propel the country to upper income status. The proposed project will help build fundamentals for lasting growth by helping establishment of the EEC and its core air infrastructure. It will closer trade integration and intraregional supply chains, as "enablers" of the planned/ongoing development program of the EEC and improve business environment of the EEC. The project will be aligned with the following impacts: distributing national economic growth impacts to the EEC and establishing the adequate infrastructure for the country being land, water, and air transport hub for further national economic growth. The outcome of the project will be improving business environment of the EEC by providing better transportation network. The outputs of the project will be (i) more convenient, safer, and climate resilient land transportation network provided in the EEC; and (ii) strategy and capacity building program for transition to low-carbon transport developed integrating gender equality and social inclusion analysis to ensure just transition for women and marginalized groups. The amount of indicative regular ordinary capital resources loan is $100 million. The cause-effect relationships between the tentative output and the proposed outcome will need to be further analyzed during fact-finding.