Welcome to Muang Thong Thani, Bangkok's most controversial satellite city project. Some call it utopia, others call it trash, many are irritated by this eyesore, many simply bewildered. Personally, I was always amazed everytime a picture of Muang Thong Thani appears in economic magazines, it always feature as the backdrop for Thailand's economic ill - a powerful metaphor no matter how much cliche it seem. Then, I suppose, a visit to Muang Thong Thani, is like taking a trip down memory lane, more or less to reminisc about the good old days when the Thai economy still bubble and the Baht were still a hard and stable currency.
The Muang Thong Thani project epitomize everything that has gone wrong with Bangkok's quest for modernisation. Big plans, greedy developers trying to squeeze the cow's milk dry. Conceived by Bangkok Land in 1989, the project took 4 years to build and at a cost of over $US1 billion. The project was meant to house 150,000 people in popular condominiums from the low end of the market to the more sophisticated villa styled serviced apartments. The project is notorious for its failure, it is somewhat of a white elephant.
The project was almost completely deserted and forgotten like ancient Khmer city. All is however not lost. MTT's fortune has been revived however in 1998, when Bangkok play hosts to the Asian Games event where Atheletic facilities were built and many unoccupied low-rise condominiums converted to Athelete village.
Background of the Muang Thong Thani (MTT) project
The Kanjanapas family is majority land owner in the area. The family began to assembled the land north of Bangkok 40 years ago. In 1989, at the height of Bangkok's building frenzy, Anant Kanjanapas, CEO of Bangkok Land Co.Ltd decided that it's time to put his utopian plan into reality. Bangkok's first fully self-sufficient, functional satellite city.
