The Kra Canal (also known as the Thai canal) is now again in the news. It’s idea though has been debated off and on since the late 17th century. The proposed canal if it ever gets built will connect the Gulf of Thailand in the South China Sea directly to the Andaman Sea in the Indian Ocean and bypass the Straits of Malacca and Singapore The canal project will cost around 28 billion US dollars and take an estimated time of around ten years to be constructed.
It seems that the idea of developing the Kra Canal is most welcome due to the great savings in costs, higher levels of safety and shortened distance compared to the journey via the Strait of Malacca. The industry players in the maritime field appear to be highly receptive to the Kra Canal concept because the canal will enable ships to bypass the highly congested Malacca Strait thus reducing voyage distance by 1,200 km and therefore voyage time resulting in higher vessel usage. A shortened single journey means that ships could reduce up to 72 h of sailing time and also save bunker costs. Therefore, this will very likely attract the crossing of vessels. Definitely, shipping and logistics companies would welcome the reduced operating and voyaging costs between East Asia and Europe. Besides that, a shorter trip would also reduce the risk of running into pirates and avoid congestion.
Sceptics’ are of the opinion that since the canal will physically divide the country of Thailand , it may create a political situation later and as always there are also concerns from the environmentalists due to dredging requirements. The fact that today more than 122,000 vessels pass through the Malacca Straits per year goes in favour of developing the Kra Canal . This amount of heavy traffic creates a very high risk of collision between vessels which could result in a much avoidable pollution disaster.
The present alternative for vessels is to use the Sunda Strait located between the islands of Jawa and Sumatra or the Lambok Strait which connects the Java Sea to the Indian Ocean. However these are much longer routes and also have a piracy history
The length of the canal is proposed to be 102 km, 400 m in width and 25 m in depth. This will allow the passage of any type of cargo vessel, up to ultra large crude carriers of 300,000 deadweight tonnage. This new development will certainly change the landscape of maritime transportation in the region as Thailand may greatly benefit from the canal toll fees , however Singapore’s status as a maritime hub may be negatively affected .
India’s own Sethusamudram Shipping Canal project connecting Gulf of Mannar with the Palk Strait which will allow ships to pass between India and Sri Lanka though conceived in 1860 has not yet been developed due to very strong opposition by religious and environmental groups.
Financial experts have also opined that the Sethusamudram project is not really viable as ships sailing from West coast of India to the East coast ports or vice versa will save only about 15 hours and ships coming from Europe and the Persian Gulf headed for China and Japan would save only about 8 hours. The proposed canal would also not be able to take deep draft ships.