The Marine Department is moving forward with a 285 million baht renovation of Koh Larn Pier in Chonburi Province. Construction will begin in 2024 and is expected to be completed in 2026. This will raise the standards of water transportation and support the sustainable tourism economy of Pattaya. Mr. Kritphet Chaichuai, Director-General of the Marine Department (MD), revealed that the Marine Department has implemented a construction project to improve the Koh Larn Pier (Na Baan Pier), Pattaya City, Chonburi Province, with a budget of 285 million baht (a 3-year commitment budget from 2024 to 2026). It is currently in the procurement process. Construction is expected to begin in 2024 and be completed in 2026, with a construction period of 900 days. For the construction project to improve the Koh Larn pier, it consists of the work of demolishing the old pier, constructing a temporary pier, constructing a reinforced concrete pier with a width of 19.4 meters and a length of 64 meters, constructing a bridge conne cting the pier, a passenger accommodation building, a roof connecting the old pier, constructing 2 concrete pontoons, and constructing 2 sets of adjustable bridges (Gangway). Koh Larn is one of the important tourist attractions of the special area of ??Pattaya City. There are approximately 5-6 million tourists visiting Koh Larn per year and the number is continuously increasing. The only way to get to Koh Larn is by water. Travel from Bali Hai Pier on the Pattaya side to the main pier, Na Baan Pier, located on the northeast side of Koh Larn. It is the first pier that the local people and local people jointly built since 1968 to connect travel between the island and the mainland. The pier is only 7 meters wide and can accommodate both cargo and passenger boats. Therefore, it is narrow and there are no guardrails, making it unsafe. Currently, the pier is seriously deteriorated, but it is still heavily used and crowded, which is inconvenient and unsafe for the public, tourists, and transportation. The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) hired a consultant to survey and design the pier to renovate it and completed it in 2015. The results of the survey and design were then sent to the Marine Department to hire a consultant to prepare an environmental impact assessment (EIA) report to submit to the Office of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy and Planning (ONEP), and the Marine Department received approval for the EIA report in late 2022. Then, it requested a budget allocation in 2024 to construct the pier. When the project is completed, Koh Larn Pier will be up to standard, allowing people and pier users to have convenience, safety, accessibility and equality, promoting the economy and improving the quality of life of local people, making the water transportation system more efficient, supporting the increasing number of people traveling to Koh Larn in the future, and promoting sustainable domestic tourism. Source: Thai News Agency