PHUKET: A proper public transport system for Phuket is likely to be fast-tracked following a summit of Andaman governors in Bangkok with Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra yesterday.

The gathering also looked with great interest at plans for a fast-rail link between Phuket's neighboring holiday provinces of Krabi and Phang Nga, and a branch track from Phang Nga to Phuket.

Talk of the rail links is likely to rekindle discussion about the future of aviation traffic on Phuket, where the existing airport will reach maximum capacity of 12.5 million passengers in 2015.

The option of expanding Krabi International Airport and speeding passengers by fast-train to Phuket remains on the table.

Phuket Governor Tri Augkaradacha has made no secret of his desire to have a Phuket public transport fully funded and lock into a timetable before he retires aged 60 in September.

Leaving Phuket with a legacy of a potential permanent solution to its public transport woes wound be a fitting highlight on which to depart.

While the tendering process still has some way to go, it's understood one Chinese investor has been showing great interest in packaging several project in Thailand in a group development.

The possibility exists for the contract to build the fast-rail between Bangkok and Ayudthaya - Thailand's candidate for World Expo 2020 - to be extended to the proposed Phuket network and the province-to-province links north of Phuket.

A fast-rail link between Bangkok and Phuket, which would also pose a partial solution to Phuket's air traffic problem, seems to now be out of the question.

Prime Minister Yingluck's historic visit for a Cabinet meeting on Phuket earlier this year appears to have confirmed the government's interest in bolstering Phuket - and with it Andaman tourism.

Time and again, whenever there has been political upheaval or a disaster like last year's floods, Phuket has remained the safe and secure alternative to maintain Thai tourism traffic.

Largely ignored even by governments led by the yellow-tinged Democrat Party, it now appears as if the Phuket region is to be given what it needs by the present red-shaded government.

Politics, of course, have nothing to do with the common need to make sure Thailand's tourism future is secured by addressing Phuket's major deficiencies.

The tendering process is likely to involve as many as 15 potential light-rail developers.

What has yet to be made clear is how the key imperative for Phuket - taking tourists directly to Phuket's holiday west coast as fast as possible - works with any fixed route going the long way through Phuket City, on the east coast, the other side of Phuket.

Buses or taxis down the west coast road are always going to be faster.

The other key issue is how Phuket's population, forced for generations to adopt motorcycles as the only convenient means of transport, can now be weaned off two wheels and onto a safer, less conjestive public transport system.

Still, yesterday's summit in Bangkok marked a large stride in the right direction in the saga of Phuket's public transport. It is not known whether tuk-tuks and jet-skis were mentioned.

Solving the present crisis of floods in Chumporn blocking the main road route between Ranong and Bangkok is also certain to have been discussed yesterday.

Improving the roads north from Phuket through Phang Nga to Ranong on the border with Burma would open the entire Andaman coast to rapid tourism development.