Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/658237
18 tobaccoasia / Issue 1, 2016 March / April) By Nattira Medvedeva The Thai government first began talking about moving TTM from its existing site on one of the most highly coveted pieces of real estate left in the center of the city in the mid-1990s. "Twenty-four years ago we presented this land to HM Queen Sirikit," said Dr. Daonoi Suttiniphapunt, managing director of TTM. "TTM had 600 rai (96 hectare) in total, of which approximately 420 rai (67.2 hectares) we presented to Her Majesty. First we built a park with an artificial lake on a 120 rai plot near the Queen Sirikit Na- tional Convention Center. [This is now called the Benjakiti park] The remaining 300 rai (48 hectares) will be developed into an expansion of the Benjakiti park. Originally the move to the new facility in Rojana Industrial Park was to start in 2020, once all the new machinery needed had been acquired. However, that plan has been accelerated so now moving to the new facility is slated to be completed by 2019. The transfer of vacated land to the Treasury Department will happen in phases, with the first phase of 61 rai (9.76 hectares) already being handed over. TTM had previously planned to locate the new facility in Chachoengsao province, also about an hour's drive east of Bangkok, but then changed to Chiangmai province in Northern Thailand in order to have closer access to raw materials. However, since TTM's main market and distribution center is in Bangkok, they had to change again and in 2009, decided on the Rojana Industrial Estate. The move to the new facility in Rojana Industrial Park will only be for TTM's production arm. Administration, or the back office, will stay in its current location in Bangkok. Out of its 3,200 employees at TTM's site in Bangkok, 1,800 of them will be moving to Rojana. The new facility has been built and ready since last year. New Home for Thailand's Tobacco Monopoly The Thailand Tobacco Monopoly (TTM) will be moving house from its current loca- tion in the heart of Bangkok's central business district to a 220 rai (35.2 hectares) plot of land at Rojana Industrial Park in Ayutthaya, a province about an hour's drive from Bangkok.