A meeting last Friday (November 9) at the Royal Phuket City Hotel, chaired by Vice-Governor Sommai Preechasilpa and featuring on the top table Wilawan Siri-Ngampen, Director of the Harbour Department, and Wichai Kamkong, Director of the Region 5 Harbour Office, drew a large number of people from the tourism industry, who were invited to give their feedback.
Also present were researchers from Thammasat University, who have been given the job of coming up with the plans.
Mrs Wilawan said that the project was part of a major policy of the Ministry of Transport to develop marine transportation in Thailand with the aim of saving energy, reducing air and road accidents, along with pollution, and increasing carbon credits.
In Phuket, the two existing harbours Rassada in Phuket Town and the Deep Sea Port in Cape Panwa will be upgraded in preparation for the start of the Asean Economic Community (AEC) in 2015.
Mr Wichai said Rassada Port will be the first to be upgraded, along the lines of Krabi’s Jilad Harbour, which is seen as a model for the overall project because it has a large terminal with clean toilets, food outlets and other facilities such as ATM machines.
The channel between Rassada Port and the sea will also be dredged to allow larger vessels to use it.
It was not clear at the meeting what the government plans for the Deep Sea Port at Cap Panwa.
There is already a plan to improve the privately-operated port, first announced in October 2011. The plan, budgeted at B176 million, includes lengthening of the quay and creation of a passenger terminal. However, the environmental impact assessment has yet to be approved.
The meeting was also told that the government will spend money on a drive to increase the Thai merchant fleet, with incentives to shipbuilders and by encouraging owners of merchant vessels to register under the Thai flag.