Thailand plans to establish new province--Suvarnabhumi
2005/10/18
BANGKOK, Thailand, APThailand plans to establish a new province around the second international airport for Bangkok that is to open next year, a senior official said Monday.
The province, to named Suvarnabhumi after Suvarnabhumi Airport, will be the country's 77th, though it will be established as a special administrative zone, said Deputy Interior Minister Somchai Sunthornvut.
The new airport, scheduled to begin operating in June next year, is situated on parts of two existing provinces, Bangkok and Samut Prakarn. It is located 45 kilometers east of metropolitan Bangkok.
One of the reasons for establishing the new province was to avoid the problems of having the airport under two separate provincial administrations, Somchai said at a news conference after a meeting of ministry meetings.
"Suvarnabhumi province is as big as Singapore but it will be more modern than Singapore with a special administration team ... to run the new city and the airport," Somchai said.
The new airport, which took four decades to move from conception to construction, is located in an area called Nong Ngu Hao, or "Cobra Swamp," where villagers used to catch cobras and net fish for their livelihood.