An artist’s rendering of
U-Tapao-Pattaya International Airport where construction of a new
passenger terminal has stalled with no estimate on when work will begin
again.
Jetsada Homklin
Already a year behind schedule, construction of a new passenger terminal
at U-Tapao-Pattaya International Airport has stalled with no estimate on
when work will begin again.
Royal Thai Navy officials in 2011 approved an 868 million baht budget to
transform the military air field in Rayong into a modern civilian
airport. The expansion called for not only a new terminal capable of
handling 1,500 passengers per hour, but new parking facilities, fuel
depot, fire-fighting systems, x-ray machines and improvements to other
equipment and landscaping.
Nearly three years later, only the fuel, fire and x-ray equipment has
been purchased, along with a new radar system and improvements to a
warehouse. Work in the 25,200 sq. meter terminal halted after the
foundation was laid. Not even a single wall has been erected.
Budgeted for 468 million baht, work on the terminal was supposed to have
been finished in June 2013. But the project’s original contractor first
said it could not deliver the terminal on time, then insisted the budget
was too small to do the job at all. The contractor was fired and work
stopped while the project was put out for bid again.
The Sri Karnyotha Co. won the new bid at 619.2 million baht. Officials
said plans for the building also changed, with the terminal said to be
larger so it can be a true alternative to Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi
International Airport. No dimensions for the revised terminal were
released.
Following last month’s military coup, funding for the project has been
put in limbo. The terminal-construction budget has been submitted to the
National Center for Peace and Order, but there is no estimate of when,
or if, it will be approved.
Pattaya Business and Tourism Association President Sinchai
Wattanasartsathorn met with airport Deputy Director Capt. Manop
Ketprajak May 28 to get an update on the project.
In addition to the terminal, Manop told Sinchai that the project also
requires that emergency services would need to be implemented so that,
if Bangkok’s airports should close again as they did in 2008, the new
U-Tapao could take up the slack.
Communication facilities and military forces would need to be organized,
as well as transportation services to bring stranded passengers to the
Rayong terminal.
