The government's ambitious project to set up a 77th province around the new airport has hit further strong opposition - from local residents, their political representatives, Bangkok administrators, and the Democrats.

But that has been the story since the day Cabinet gave the controversial plan the go ahead.

Alongkorn Polabutr, the Democrat Party's deputy leader, said yesterday subsequent projects to establish residential areas around Suvarnabhumi ran against international principles in urban development.

The airport and residential estates would occupy a vast space long used as a catchment basin for Bangkok during flood seasons.

Alongkorn called on the government to review the Cabinet decision on Tuesday to approve a draft bill establishing the new special administrative zone, and instead designate a special area to accommodate the airport.

"New airports worldwide are now built far away from populated areas. In some places buffer zones of five kilometres are built to keep the distance even further," he said.

Under the draft bill, the new metropolitan area will cover 521.7 square kilometres drawn from 176 sq km belonging to the two Bangkok districts of Lat Krabang and Prawet, and 345 sq km from Bang Phli district and Bang Sao Thong subdistrict in Samut Prakan.

Caretaker Senator Charoon Youngprapakorn from Samut Prakan said his constituents were unhappy with the scheme.

"The airport is our pride, but now the government wants to run it alone. It's now like a time-bomb waiting to explode if the government still goes ahead with its plan without asking for our approval," he said.

Assoc Prof Thanes Jaroenmuang, a political scientist at Chiang Mai University, said the four districts need not be grouped in the metropolitan area just to serve the purpose of efficiently operating an airport.

Including the four districts would create political nightmares if residents opposed it, he said.

The Bangkok Metropolitan Admin-istration (BMA) also disagreed with assigning two Bangkok districts to be supervised by Suvarnabhumi Metropolitan, saying the government was proceeding with the project without seeking input from the BMA.

Deputy city clerk Phichai Chaiyaphojphanich said Bangkok would become more prone to flooding after the catchment basin was used by the new city.

The BMA would also stand to lose some Bt300 million in taxes collected from residents and businesses in the two districts.

Phatthanaphong Jongrakdee, mayor of Bang Phli town, said a plan under the scheme to have the zone governed by a state-appointed commission was aimed at monopolising administrative power and was not fair to residents in the four districts, who were entitled to have a say in managing their affairs.

Somkhid Ruengaram, chairman of the Samut Prakan Chamber of Commerce, said Samut Prakan and its people had been overlooked despite the fact the province, which is packed with industrial estates, contributes huge revenues for the entire country each year.

A meeting of local administrative bodies will be held in Samut Prakan tomorrow to discuss the matter.

The session is expected to reach a conclusion that would allow for legal amendments to alter certain projects under the metropolitan scheme before it is formally implemented over the next few years.