Tawalyarat Onsira, head of the Marine Department, said the Transport Ministry was constructing Chiang Saen II to deal with increasing water traffic from southern China.

However, a delay in funding may put the project off until the middle of next year, pending budget approval, he said.

Despite this, the Transport Ministry will go ahead with plans to modify Chiang Saen I to become a special port to cater for hundreds of thousands of Chinese tourists who travel here.

The ministry is negotiating with the Tourism Authority (TAT) to transfer responsibility for Chiang Saen I to the TAT. It is expected that TAT would take over the port in two years and develop it for tourism.

Tawalyarat said the redevelopment should ease public protests about lorries that transfer goods through the port, which are said to cause damage to the local environment and archaeological sites.

The ministry decided to develop Chiang Saen II after Chiang Saen I saw a 48-per-cent-increase in export and import traffic last year.

Chiang Saen I is expected to be running at full capacity in two years. Therefore, it is imperative to construct Chiang Saen II, Tawalyarat said.

The new port is located on a 400 rai plot of land, which is 40 times larger than the original port.

Tawalyarat said the Marine Department had applied for Bt49 million to buy land for the second port, but a delay in disbursement of the funds is likely to put the project on hold until the middle of next year.

Wanchai Sarathulthat, the permanent secretary of the Transport Ministry, said the ministry would not reverse its decision to develop more ports in the area despite public protests that the traffic of goods between Thailand and southern China has increased too rapidly.

Chiang Saen II, he said, was important for the economic development in the area.