The board of Airports of Thailand has approved construction of second airports for Chiang Mai and Phuket with a combined planned investment of 120 billion baht.
AoT president Nitinai Sirismatthakarn said on Friday the board approved the plans in principle for fiscal years 2019-2023, with each project allocated 60 billion baht, Thai media reported.
Construction is expected to begin in 2019 and be completed no later than 2025, he said.
Ban Thi district in neighbouring Lamphun province has been earmarked as the site for Chiang Mai’s second airport, and tambon Khok Kloi in Phangna provice’s Takua Thung district for the second Phuket airport. The two sites are each about 20-30 km away from the existing airports.
Each facility will accommodate about 10 million passengers a year, he said.
AoT board chairman Prasong Phunthanet said the planned second airports would cater to the rising number of visitors to these destinations and ease overcrowding at the existing airports.
Source : Bangkokpost
