A view of Chao Praya River that cuts through downtown Bangkok, Thailand,  one of the major 

rivers to be included in the Thai government’s rivers management project, for which 

the Korean consortium led by K-water has been named the priority bidder on two of 

the nine segments of the huge project worth 6.2 trillion won on June 10.(photo courtesy of K-water)

   The Korean consortium has been picked as a preferred bidder in two of the nine river control projects in Thailand, the government said June 10.

The consortium, led by Korea Water Resources Corp. (K-water), has been named as the potential winner of two projects worth 6.2 trillion won ($5.47 billion) combined. This amount accounts for 56 percent of the 11-trillion won river control program in the Southeast Asian country, K-water said.

Thailand’s Water Resources and Flood Management Commission announced that the consortium of K-water and Korean construction companies has been selected as the preferred bidder in two of the nine water restoration projects to be undertaken by the Thai commission, following the analyses of the biddings submitted by a number of bidders for the huge project. 

The ITD-Power China consortium was picked as the preferred bidder for the dam and folder and stream control projects, accounting for 38 percent of the nine projects, becoming the second largest bidder after the Korean consortium. The K-water consortium will be officially declared the winner after the conclusion of talks on key matters including the price of the project. The construction firms included in the consortium are such top Korean builders as Hyundai Construction, GS Construction, Daewoo Construction, and Daelim Industry, each with vast experience working on overseas construction projects and the Four Rivers Restoration Project in Korea.

President Park Geun-hye met Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra when she visited Seoul to attend her inauguration ceremony on Feb. 25 and she toured part of the Four Rivers Restoration Project in Korea to see how the major rivers are being controlled. Prime Minister Chung Hong-won also called on his Thai counterpart on May 19 in support of the Korean bidder in the Thai river control project while in Bangkok to attend the second Asia-Pacific Summit on water management.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said that the consortium led by K-water has been named a preferred bidder for Thailand’s A-5 project to build floodways and A-3 project to build reservoirs.

The projects are both part of Thailand’s water management program, and the A-5 project alone is worth 5.9 trillion won, or about 53 percent of the total, the ministry said. The A-3 project is worth about 380 billion won.

The Thai government selected the consortium as one of the six finalists from countries including Thailand, China, and Japan competing for the projects aimed at restoring its water resources infrastructure to prevent massive flooding.

The projects by the Thai government have drawn international attention due to their size, said Manager Park Jae-young of the K-water Southeast Asia Project Team stationed in Bangkok, who has been working with representatives of four Korean construction companies in the consortium to win the bid for the Thai project since 2009 when K-water opened its Bangkok office. He said what gave the Korean consortium an advantage has been Prime Minister Shinawatra and other Thai high-ranking government officials’ visits to Korea to inspect the Four Rivers Restoration Project in Korea, which confirmed the technologies that Korean builders showed off in completing the huge project.

The announcement came four months after the consortium led by K-water was shortlisted for all nine major projects on Feb. 5.

The nine projects include the construction of dams and reservoirs, the management of land and flood control systems around Chao Praya, one of Thailand’s major rivers, and 24 other waterways across the country.