Expo Center to be at Mai Khao

MAI KHAO: It has now been confirmed that the site for Phuket’s international convention and exhibition center will be a spread of 2,800 rai of state-owned land near the Sirinart National Park on Mai Kao beach, in the north of the island. Local officials confirmed that an inspector from the Interior Ministry was in Phuket today to survey the land. The Deputy-General of the Treasury Department, Visut Montriwat, and the Deputy Minister of Finance, Varathep Ratanakorn, will arrive on Sunday, also to survey the site. Visut and Varathep will also attend an exhibition on Sunday afternoon at the Phuket Provincial Treasury Department, at which would-be investors may obtain details of government-owned land that is to be leased out for private development. Six plots in Phuket Town and one in Thalang are to be put up for tender. In Phuket Town the sites are as follows: – The former home of the manager of the Standard Chartered Bank, standing on six rai of land on Pa Lien Rd and Damrong Rd, and designated for conversion into a restaurant; – The site of the former headquarters of the Provincial Electricity Authority on Thalang Rd, a plot of 10 rai, designated for conversion into a public park with car park and restaurants; – The Provincial Treasurer’s house on Amphur Rd, a site of just over a quarter of a rai; – The residences of the heads of the Provincial Revenue and Provincial Excise Departments, on Damrong Rd, together covering an area of seven rai; – The residence of the head of the Provincial Finance Department, on the intersection of Thung Ka Rd and Yaowarat Rd, on a site of two rai, designated for conversion into a restaurant; and – The former residence of the head of the now-defunct Marine Mining Office, next to the municipal garden on Montri Rd, a plot of just under half a rai. The plot in Thalang consists of 33 rai of rice field on the Saku-Naithon road, designated for a housing development specifically for foreigners. The exhibition will open at 1 pm in the meeting room on the 3rd floor of the department’s building on Narisorn Rd, Phuket Town.