Plan to ban cars on Koh
Chang -
Apr 29, 2004
Tourists will be urged
to use boats, no new roads
Koh Chang is to be ruled
off-limits to vehicles from the mainland from 2007, according
to a Natural Resources and Environment Ministry plan revealed
yesterday.
Environment Minister Plodprasop Suraswadi
said the plan would allow only local vehicles to traverse the
tourist attraction in Trat province.
"Tourists will be
barred from taking their vehicles to Koh Chang," he
said.
He said no more roads would be built on the
island under the Koh Chang Development Plan, as the
authorities were hoping to encourage people to use boats as
their main means of transport.
Prime Minister Thaksin
Shinawatra plans to visit Koh Change on Sunday.
Under
his leadership, the government has floated a plan to develop
Koh Chang into an international tourist destination on a par
with Phuket.
Tourism Minister Sonthaya Kunplome said
about Bt5 billion would be spent on infrastructure projects on
the island, as well as on marketing the island as a tourist
destination.
"We will urgently tackle the problems of
garbage and limited water resources there," he said, after a
meeting about Koh Chang's development chaired by
Thaksin.
Sonthaya said the authorities would refrain
from building a reservoir on the island, citing environmental
concerns. Plodprasop said land prices on Koh Chang had
been increasing constantly in recent years, and a single rai
could now fetch as much as Bt10million.
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