I don't know why they not building canal. Thai split promote secession?
A land bridge is a messy alternative. Imagine ships have to unload, cargo goes through land and loads on a different ship. The unloaded ship still need to travel around SG. And trust the Thais to do all the cargo movement.
A land bridge concept can only work for the Africa continent & NOT in Asia, simply because shippers would have much considerations to earn their money:-
a) Time taken - operational costs
b) Sea conditions
c) Political assurances for trade.
For ships to go around the S. African tip, the SEA CONDITIONS are treacherous, as treacherous as the North Seas where MONSTER waves can reach up to 100m high, all year round. That location is not called the Cape of Good Hope for nothing. Trade ships would need hope & prayers to round that African peninsula...
Furthermore, it would take days for ships from Asia reach that tip & then reach the Americas & EU. Worse still is that that ship once reached its destinations, they would have to return home empty handed & thus a waste of labor costs & fuel, although if such ships uses hydrogen fuel cells, it may mitigate costs...
Thus a land bridge at the THINEST part of the African Continent - Tanzania to Zaire, for TRANSHIPMENT, would be a worthy consideration should the Red Sea be blocked.
However, a land bridge at the tip of Thailand would only instead cost MORE to shipping firms, as it will take time to offload cargoes on one side, transport by rail or trucks to the other end, & then load all up. It would take unnecessary delays of MANY DAYS & HIGHER operating costs...
Furthermore, the sea conditions of the Malacca Straits & South China Seas near coasts are often easily navigable even in the worst of monsoon storms. It would only just take ONE day more of sailing time to Singapore, which is a 24hr port, & less than a day for an entire cargo load to be reloaded onto another ship for trans-shipment to final destination.
Instead of Thai land bridge but should the Kra canal be built, it would logically serve shipping firms, but to construct that canal, it would take a MASSIVE load of explosives to create that canal, as that length alone would be LONGER than the Panama canal, & worse - nukes may have to be used. Just think of the environmental impact upon agrarian Thailand society, let alone to its ASEAN neighbors & Earth's Climate....
