Overview
- Thailand’s Transport Ministry ordered a 15-day stop to work on 14 Italian-Thai Development contracts and paused other major ministry projects for safety inspections.
- Two crane collapses this week — a gantry hitting a Bangkok–Ubon Ratchathani train in Nakhon Ratchasima and another on an elevated road near Bangkok — left 34 people dead.
- Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said contracts at the accident sites will be terminated, with officials also moving to blacklist and prosecute responsible firms and to seize performance bonds, plus a contractor scorecard planned by early February.
- Italian-Thai Development called a bondholder meeting to seek consent to extend the maturity of five note series by three years, covering about US$446 million.
- The company said some agreements, including a China-backed high-speed rail section and a Bangkok–Samut Sakhon expressway, remain valid and it pledged compensation for victims.