PHUKET: The owners of Phuket's Burasari Resort are planning a large new five-star on an island off the east coast of Phuket.

The plan for the new resort across 142 rai on Koh Mapow, best known as the home of the Coconut Village development, is being discussed by the Phuket Governor's Special Committee on the Environment.

Yesterday a group of 14 officials and media ventured to the island, about 10 minutes by boat from the Laem Hin pier.

Central to the proposed development is a 317-metre concrete pier, which Phuripat Theerakulpisut, Chief of Phuket's Marine Office 5, yesterday said he personally ''guaranteed'' would protect the marine life around the island.

About 170 Muslim families presently call tranquil Koh Mapow home. They use solar panels to provide power and, like the villagers on most east coast islands, enjoy their natural surroundings and relatively rich marine life.

A meeting of the Governor's special environmental committee at Provincial Hall in Phuket City in the afternoon heard from Khun Phuripat, who repeated his ''guarantee'' that erection of the two-metre wide pier would preserve the island ecology.

Dr Narinee Tongtam, a marine biologist committee member from the Phuket Marine Biological Centre, was not quite so convinced that the environment would go undamaged.

The Korkaew municipal council is to hold a public meeting to find out whether residents on and around the island and the proposed development are in favor of the project going ahead.

The Burasari Resort sits in southern Patong, near the Holiday Inn and the Courtyard by Marriott. The new resort is to be named Koh Mapow by Burasari Resort.