THE State Railway of Thailand is seeing near-future shortage of personnel as future rail system projects require around 30,000 more workers.
On July 26, Deputy Minister of Transport Pichit Akrathit visited the Railway Technician School to address the development policy for the school as part of handling upcoming development of the State Railway of Thailand’s (SRT’s) business. He revealed that the SRT is currently entering a stage where the organization is largely in shortage of personnel.
The situation is posing a risk to its capability to support future rail projects including high speed system, double-track system and regional systems as there will be a demand for an approximate total number of 30,000 personnel within the next four years. SRT currently employs only 11,000 employees.
Since nearly 20,000 are still to be hired, Mr. Phichit ordered the SRT to set up a commission to consider two matters:
- By means of cabinet resolution modification, to increase the recruitment percentage of personnel graduated from the Railway Technician School from about 5% of the number of retired employees or up to 50 people a year to a compatibly higher percentage.
- Create a guideline for the development of the Excellent Center to produce required personnel and submit to the Executive Board within three months before submitting the matter to the Ministry of Transport and then to the Cabinet for approval within the year 2560 (2017) so that it could go in alignment with the national infrastructure development plan.
It is considered a matter which he fully agreed with the SRT governor that this needs to be implemented urgently because it will lay the foundation for the whole future of Thai railway industry as well as the extension of its personnel’s capability to the regional level.
CAPTION:
Top: SRT officials working on getting a freight train back on track. Photo: Phenkhao.com
By Piboon Awasdaruharote
Comments
