Agencies partner to start cleaning 2,400 km of cables February 15

Could an end be in sight for Thailand’s infamously snarled mass of electric and communication cables overhead? The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission has set a goal this year of cleaning up 2,000 kilometres worth of cables in the provinces of Thailand, plus another 400 kilometres just in Bangkok alone.

The Cabinet had previously set this ambitious cleanup goal last year on November 23, and the NBTC met last week to agree to accomplish the task. The project will pull together multiple agencies spearheaded by the NBTC to coordinate together to cover the work and the costs of clearing the unsightly, and often dangerous, mess of wires and cables hanging over so many streets in Thailand.

• Metropolitan Electricity Authority
  • Covering the cost of the equipment used in the greater Bangkok area to hang communications cables
• Provincial Electricity Authority
  • Covering the same expenses to hang communication cables outside of Bangkok in the provinces
• Bangkok Metropolitan Administration
  • Facilitating the organization of communication lines
  • Providing disposal space for the outdated and removed cables
• National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission
  • Coordinating and overseeing the cleanup
  • Covering the cost for the cable removal and disposal

The joint effort to clean up the infamously ugly cables is part of a 3-year overhead cable management plan between the agencies. The designated cables for this first wave in Bangkok and in the provinces are considered the most urgent wires.

The cable cleanup is expected to launch on February 15. The secretary-general of the NBTC warns that, during the cleanups, areas being worked on will likely experience some inconveniences. But he promised a new more beautiful Bangkok that will also be safer from the walking and driving hazard of stray dangling cables.

The first Bangkok portions will likely be bankrolled by the NBTC’s Broadcasting and Telecommunications Research Development Fund while later work will be paid out of their annual fee payment in line with regulator’s rules.

The agencies partnered together in 2019 to move 27 kilometres of cables underground and to add 275 kilometres of overhead pipes on 106 roads including 24 in Bangkok. In 2020 they moved another 52 kilometres of cables underground and added overhead pipes for 8 more Bangkok roads covering about 40 kilometres. The projects were then slowed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

SOURCE: Bangkok Post