Phang Nga Super-Projects planned

Getting to Krabi gets easier with each passing year, thanks to its rising popularity and Thailand’s improving transportation network. Flights now arrive and depart at Krabi’s tiny airport every day from Bangkok, eliminating the long bus trip down the isthmus. Alternatively, visitors can fly into Phuket’s international airport and make the short road or boat journey south to Krabi. New dive sites are regularly added to the menu, proving that Thailand’s western coast is indeed one of the planet’s premier diving destinations and will continue to be so.

The beginning Year of the Rat certainly was the focal point to announce not one, but two super-projects that are planned for Phang Nga province:

From the Phuket Gazette:

"The Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) will request a budget of 1.3 billion baht from the new Cabinet to fund construction of a domestic airport in Phang Nga province.
Plans have already been drawn up for the construction of an airport that would cover 1,400 rai on Koh Khao, a 45,000-rai island in Takuapa district." ...
"With the current plans, the airport would be able to accommodate airliners as large as Boeing 737s."

Phuket Gazette:

"The Year of the Rat is certain to change the fortunes of a sleepy area of Phang Nga province, as a Hong Kong company owned by billionaire Richard Li has announced plans for a mega-resort project along the beach in Thai Muang district.
Land acquired by Li’s company Pacific Century Premium Developments Limited (PCPD) in late 2007 totals 1,081.25 rai, with 2.5 kilometers of beach frontage. The property includes all of the Thai Muang Golf Course, which will be retained and undergo extensive reconstruction.
The 18-hole, Perry Dye-designed Thai Muang Golf Course first opened in December 1995.
Buildings on the property have been demolished to make way for luxury hotels and villas, as well as yachting, recreational and retail facilities. Details are being kept under wraps until the master plan is completed.
Award-winning Hong Kong-based architects Original Vision, which has a branch office in Phuket, has been appointed to design the project.
Asians, Europeans and Americans will be the primary customers, said Jenny Tam, PCPD’s head of corporate communications.
“We have successfully developed a luxury lifestyle through the Bel-Air experience in Hong Kong. Through the Bel-Air exercise, we have found there are quite a lot of affluent customers who are interested in buying second homes in luxury developments overseas. We believe the Thai Muang Beach Project would become their second home.”
Bel-Air is a large luxury apartment complex that forms the residential part of Cyberport, a high-tech hub in Telegraph Bay developed by PCPD’s parent company PCCW Limited, of which Richard Li is also the chairman.
Ms Tam declined to reveal whether Richard Li, son of Li Ka-shing, reputedly the richest man in Asia, was personally involved in the transaction or if he will have his own private residence on site. It is also not known if the “digital city” concept on which Cyberport is based will be brought to Thai Muang.
She also declined to confirm or deny newspaper and online reports of the land acquisition price tag of 2 billion baht." ...
"Richard Li, 41, is ranked 698^th in Forbes magazine’s World’s Richest People list, with an estimated net worth of US$1.5 billion."