Thailand’s Ministry of Transport on Friday ordered a 15-day suspension of construction across 14 contracts involving Italian-Thai Development Plc (ITD), following two fatal crane accidents in as many days that have intensified scrutiny of safety standards on state-backed infrastructure projects.
The decision comes amid a grim week for Thailand’s transport sector. On Wednesday, a train derailment in Nakhon Ratchasima killed 32 passengers. Less than 24 hours later, two drivers were crushed to death when a crane collapsed on Rama II Road in Samut Sakhon. Authorities said both crane incidents involved equipment used on Italian-Thai construction sites.
ITD, one of Thailand’s largest contractors, said it accepted responsibility for providing care, compensation and remedies to victims’ families in both cases.
According to the transport ministry, the temporary halt will allow expert teams to conduct detailed safety inspections to ensure compliance with engineering and workplace standards. Chirapong Theppithuck, deputy permanent secretary of the ministry, said the inspections would determine whether legal or regulatory action is required.
Beyond the 14 Italian-Thai-linked contracts, the ministry also ordered other large-scale projects under its supervision to pause construction for up to 15 days for similar checks, signalling a broader clampdown on safety lapses after a string of deadly incidents.
The latest crane collapses add to a troubling record for the sector and for Italian-Thai in particular. In March last year, the nearly completed State Audit Office tower in Bangkok collapsed following a 7.7-magnitude earthquake in neighbouring Myanmar. That disaster killed at least 96 people and led prosecutors to file negligence charges against 23 individuals, including ITD president Premchai Karnasuta.
Despite these controversies, Italian-Thai has remained a major beneficiary of state infrastructure spending. Data from the Stock Exchange of Thailand show the company secured seven government construction contracts worth more than 26 billion baht in 2025.
Political pressure intensified on Friday when Acting Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, who is leading a caretaker government ahead of a general election scheduled for Feb. 8, said authorities would terminate ITD’s contracts for the two accident-hit projects and pursue legal action.
Those projects include an elevated highway above Rama II Road and concrete works for an elevated high-speed rail line in the northeast that is ultimately intended to connect Thailand with China via Laos.
“The government sees this as a danger to people’s lives and property and has instructed the transport minister to terminate the contracts,” Mr Anutin told reporters. “In this case, actions have posed a danger to the public. Therefore, we must use an administrative order to proceed.”
Italian-Thai, however, said in a filing to the Stock Exchange of Thailand that the two contracts remained in effect, underscoring uncertainty over how far a caretaker administration can go without exposing the state to financial liabilities.
Analysts cautioned that unilateral contract termination by the government could trigger compensation claims. They also noted that if a caretaker government committed a future administration to bear such costs, it could violate constitutional limits on interim powers.
The safety crisis has further clouded Italian-Thai’s financial outlook at a sensitive moment. The company is seeking investor approval to restructure about $446 million in debt and held an online meeting with bondholders on Friday to request a three-year extension on the maturity of five bond series. The outcome of those talks has not been disclosed.
A prolonged liquidity squeeze has already forced ITD to sell overseas assets, including a cement business in India and a mining unit in Thailand. The company accumulated losses of around 13 billion baht between 2020 and 2024 after delays and write-downs on projects in India, Taiwan and Myanmar, where the imposition of military rule disrupted operations.
Italian-Thai reported a net profit of 7.4 billion baht in the first nine months of 2025, largely driven by gains from asset sales, even as revenue from its core construction business continued to decline.
