BANGKOK -- Thai Deputy Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul's patience was at its limit. Negotiations over a 224.5 billion baht ($7.43 billion) high-speed railway had dragged on nearly a year past schedule.
In September, he upped the pressure on the group that won the initial bid for the project, an international consortium led by Charoen Pokphand Group, Thailand's largest conglomerate.
