|
Thailand Inland Waterways
Historically, about 4,000 kilometers of inland waterways
consisting of the rivers and canals of the central plain and the
Chao Phraya Delta formed the backbone of the transportation
system. Although in the twentieth century railroads and roads
assumed a dominant position in the central plain, waterways still
carried a sizable portion of the total traffic. Waterborne
freight, chiefly consisting of rice, accounted for about 17
percent of total freight transported countrywide in the 1980s.
Large numbers of small craft also transported passengers. During
the rainy season about 1,600 kilometers of waterways were
navigable by barges of up to 80 tons and 1.8-meter draft, which
could travel from the Gulf of Thailand to as far north as
Uttaradit. Navigation was reduced to about 1,100 kilometers of
waterways in the dry season, and traffic could navigate only to
Nakhon Sawan, roughly halfway to Uttaradit. Shallow-draft vessels
could navigate the interconnected network of canals throughout
the year, and Bangkok, Ayutthaya, and other towns had floating
markets where a great deal of trading activity took place. Some
sections of the Mekong River were also navigable.
Data as of September 1987
|
