Nakhon Suvarnabhumi Province

Nakhon Suvarnabhumi (Thai: นครสุวรรณภูมิ) was a proposed new province of Thailand in the southeast of Bangkok around the new Bangkok airport. It is planned to cover the districts Lat Krabang and Prawet of Bangkok and Bang Sao Thong and Bang Phli of Samut Prakan Province, an area of 521 km² with about 462,000 residents.

The proposal was announced in October 2005,^[1] with a draft bill approved by the cabinet in June 2006.^[2] According to the bill, for the first four years the province will be run by a governor appointed by the Interior Ministry and supervised by a 30-member administrative board chaired by the prime minister. After the four years the administrative board will be dissolved, but the final administrative structure of the province is not yet set. It is planned to become a special administrative zone, probably having an elected governor like Bangkok. A final bill was scheduled to be submitted after the political crisis of 2006, however after the coup d'état it has become quiet about the project.

The establishment of a new province and the further development of the area around the airport have been criticized by several groups, most notably the Bangkok Metropolitan Authority. The previously unsettled areas are used as part of the flood-prevention system of Bangkok, which may be compromised by further urbanization in that area. The plan also found negative response in surveys among the local population.^[3]

The proposal was finally withdrawn by a resolution of the cabinet dated 3 April 2007.

References

1. The Nation, October 18, 2005
2. Cabinet approves plan for Maha Nakhon Suvarnabhumi, Thai News Agency, June 20, 2006
3. The Nation, April 4 2007