BMA ready to order Aetas hotel demolition

– Thailand news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community

PHUKET: The Aetas hotel will be the largest building to face a demolition order from the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration for breaking regulations, its BMA deputy permanent secretary Kritsada Kluntanont said yesterday.

“We have ordered the demolition of several structures before, but they were not this big,” he said.

Located on Soi Ruamrudee, The Aetas Bangkok is a luxury hotel with 24 floors. However, this soi is not 10 metres wide throughout. By law, any building along such a small lane must not exceed 23 metres in height, or about eight floors.

The BMA looks set to issue the demolition order on The Aetas soon because the Supreme Administrative Court on Tuesday upheld an earlier ruling that the hotel must remove most of its floors.

“We are ready to comply with the court order,” BMA permanent secretary Sanya Chenimit said yesterday.

Kritsada, however, reckoned there was a risk the hotel owner would file a compensation lawsuit against the BMA on grounds it had permits.

“When officials granted the permits, they used old information in a land database that showed the soi was at least 10 metres wide throughout. They failed to measure the width of the soi before granting the approval,” he said.

He said if the BMA faced a compensation lawsuit, it would set up a panel to nail the officials responsible for the case.

— Phuket Gazette Editors