Authorities are planning a wave of new projects worth nearly 20 billion baht for the southern province of Surat Thani and its famous island, Koh Samui.
The group of 25 projects will be proposed to a cabinet meeting, taking place on the island on Sunday and Monday, according to Surat Thani deputy governor Wongsiri Promchana.
Among the proposed projects are four large-scale developments worth more than 1 billion baht each.
Also included are a project at Prince of Songkla University's (PSU) advanced medical institute, a project to build a new prison for Surat Thani, and a project to expand a road to Surat Thani airport.
Local officials in Surat Thani plan to propose nine projects worth 176.28 million baht. They include a 11.98-million-baht project to prevent floods in tourist areas along Chaweng beach on Koh Samui island, a 2.8-million-baht artificial well project to solve water shortages on the island, a 50-million-baht project to build Koh Tao Hospital, and a 20-million-baht project to build a water retention field in the Thung Hua Son area.
Other projects are a 20-million-baht tourist information centre, a 15-million-baht project to build PSU Witthayanusorn Surat Thani School, a 3.5-million-baht model community project, a 40-million-baht flood prevention project for Wat Phra Borommathat Chaiya Ratchaworawihan temple, and a 13-million-baht environmentally-friendly garbage disposal project.
The cabinet will also consider eight projects worth 4.3 billion baht for four southern provinces _ Chumphon, Surat Thani, Nakhon Si Thammarat and Phatthalung.
They include a project for the preliminary design of Don Sak Surat Thani airport, a road project parallel to Asian Highway No. 41 in Phatthalung, a project to seek the World Heritage listing of Wat Phra Mahathat Woramahawihan temple in Nakhon Si Thammarat, and a cargo distribution centre project in Thung Song district of Nakhon Si Thammarat.