The Port Authority of Thailand continued public hearings into third-stage development of Laem Chabang Port, focusing this time on the engineering and construction design of the harbor expansion and its impact on the environment.
Government, state enterprise and academic leaders joined with members of the pubic at the Dec. 23 hearing on the scope and environmental assessment.
Port Deputy Director Phum Sangkam gave an overview of the port expansion plan and briefed the audience on the scope and assessment related to the environment and public health.
Phase 3 would expand the port’s main pier to 5 kilometers and dredge the channel to 18.5 meters. Inside the harbor, there would be two container ports stretching 750 meters and two more 1 kilometer long, which could handle 7 million containers a year. Another 500-meter seaport would handle an additional 1 million containers.
The plan also calls for six 920-meter-long ports for vehicles able to handle 1 million cars per year, and a container rail transfer station serving 1.4 million containers per year.
Officials say the most-affected public groups would be fishermen near the port, businesses on land and the residents with sanitation and quality of life concerns.
