Abandoned Phuket hotel to be demolished after landslide
Phuket continues to be rocked by the fallout from storms, flooding and landslides. One landslide has been cleared enough in Patong Hill to allow pedestrians to cross. Another has led to the agreement to demolish an abandoned hotel near a bypass in Ratsada town. And authorities are now investigating if an illegal excavation led to a landslide that threatened the homes of monks in Kathu. See updates on these stories on The Thaiger.
ABANDONED HOTEL
In Ratsada, a long-abandoned hotel is set to be demolished after a landslide last week that shut down the bypass below it. Government officials have said that the buildings that had been perched precariously for thirty years have never posed any threat to anybody passing below. That seems to have changed now, as the landowners agreed to tear down the hotel according to The Phuket News.
On Wednesday, a landslide closed the northbound lanes of the normally busy bypass. Mud and debris closed the road again on Thursday when a large tree blocked the roadway. The northbound lanes are still closed today due to the landslide. The southbound lanes have been split to allow cars to travel in both directions along the bypass.
Phuket Vice Governor Amnuay Pinsuwan announced that demolishing the hotel will help prevent future landslides. He made his comments after a meeting yesterday with representatives of the landowner. While it was announced that the abandoned hotel would be torn down, the official report did not state that it was at the request of the government.
Such a request would go against their long-standing claim that the buildings perched on the hill above the bypass have posed no danger to the public. The vice governor simply announced the time frame for demolition.
“The company is willing to demolish [the hotel] and will send the matter to Ratsada Municipality and the Phuket Provincial Office of Public Works and Town & Country Planning to request permission to demolish the buildings on October 25, 2022, then the demolition will be done immediately. It will take about two weeks.”
