Locals welcome first hotel on Koh Maphrao
PHUKET: Koh Keaw Tambon Administration Organization (OrBorTor) has welcomed the news that a 600-million-baht hotel is to be built on Koh Maphrao, in Phang Nga Bay, east of Phuket City.
Managing director Lily Udomkunnatum unveiled Burasari Resort’s plans for the development, the first hotel on Koh Maphrao, and the company’s third in Phuket, after the Burasari Resort, Patong, which opened in 2002, and the Burasari Jungceylon, due to open in January at the Jungceylon complex, Patong.
Koh Keaw OrBorTor Chairman Bundit Santikul told the Gazette that local people welcomed the news of the project, although the project could not be taken further until an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) had been done to check whether it would have a negative effect on the surrounding area.
If the project passes the EIA, the developers can then ask the OrBorTor for permission to build, said K. Bundit.
He said, “At this time we haven’t received any request from the developers, but I think the EIA is still under way.”
Several developments on Phuket have been subject to investigations over ownership of the land they are being built on, but K. Bundit said there should be no problem over land in Koh Maphrao as most plots already had chanote titles.
Since the Burasari group had bought the 200-rai site only this year, he added, and the titles would have been checked then, there was even less chance of there being any dispute over ownership.
