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Govt slashes Patong, Kamala rebuilding funds
PHUKET CITY: The Cabinet yesterday approved a budget of 200 million baht to rebuild Patong Beach and a further 100 million baht to rebuild Kamala Beach, together totaling less than a third of the original budgets Phuket Governor Udomsak Usawarangkul requested.At a meeting of district chiefs and other top-ranking provincial officials, chaired by Governor Udomsak today, Vice-Governor Winai Buapradit announced…
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Marine Chief defends agency after sinking
PHUKET: Surin Tirakulpisut, Head of the Phuket Marine Office, defended his agency in the face of scathing criticism, both in the media and by Government officials, after the disastrous sinking of the ferry Rungroj last Saturday.The last victim of the Rungroj was pulled from the sea yesterday evening, bringing the final death toll to 10. The victim was identified as…
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Target practice
PATTAYA: Though few people may know this, it’s actually against Thai law for three people to ride on the same motorbike. Three young men on a drinking spree in Pattaya learned the hard way that even if the police tend not to enforce the law rigorously, there are other perfectly good reasons not to pile so many on a single…
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Costly cat nap
BANGKOK: Just like the felines they are named after, cat burglars are known for their stealth, cunning, and grace of movement. But a cat burglar who successfully scaled his way into a Siam Commercial Bank office early one Sunday morning shared another another trait with cats that turned out to be his undoing – cat napping. Police arrested would-be bank…
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Ferry death toll rises to nine
KOH YAO: Nine people drowned when the overloaded passenger ferry Rungroj capsized and sank in heavy seas off Naka Island Saturday afternoon. One person is still missing. Of the nine dead, five were children and three others were women. The 13-meter vessel had left Bang Rong pier in Thalang District and was bound for Koh Yao Noi at about 3…
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Fortune 500 firms step in to help
PHUKET: Phuket Governor Udomsak Usawarangkura on Friday announced the top five mid- and long-term priorities that US Fortune 500 companies can help with, following the December 26 tsunami.Governor Udomsak met with James Lee Witt, former Director of the US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and fellow consultants from James Lee Witt Associates, which provides disaster recovery and mitigation management consultancy…
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Tsunami alarm test fails to convince public
PATONG: The resort town’s new early warning system encountered a few hiccups during its first test on Friday, with one witness describing it as sounding like “an announcement at a temple fair”.Two of the seven sirens installed throughout Patong Municipality failed to go off,and even when this had been rectified, the alarms were not audible to everyone, although the manufacturers…
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Fishing boat relief payout “nearly complete’
PHUKET: The Phuket office of the Department of Fisheries (DoF) expects to finish paying out about 46.8 million baht in aid to rebuild Phuket’s fishing fleet by the end of next week, Issara Bussayarat, Chief of the Phuket DoF office has told the Gazette.K. Issara said that 550 fishing boats registered with the Department were damaged by the December 26…
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Three from PRU die in Chiang Mai bus crash
PHUKET: Two students and a teacher from Phuket Rajabhat University (PRU) were killed in a road accident near Chiang Mai on Thursday.The three were members of a 40-strong party from PRU on an educational trip to northern Thailand. They were on their way back to Phuket at the end of the trip when the accident happened.The dead students, both women…
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Quake worry sparks reservoir rethink
PHUKET: Plans to build a dam at Bang Niew Dum in Thalang District have been ditched and new plans are being drawn so that the dam will be more resistant to earthquake tremors.Wit Wonggamonchoon, Chief of the Surat Thani-based Irrigation Construction Region 5 office, told the Gazette, “The earthquake off Indonesia was 9.5 on the Richter scale.” Shocks from the…
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Beauties for Bangla
PHUKET: Some 44 contestants in the 2005 Miss Thailand Universe competition will arrive in Phuket on March 17 for a one-week stay on the island. The visit is intended to help bring tourists back to Phuket in the aftermath of the tsunami. When not out promoting tourism, the Thai beauties will be cloistered at the Kata Beach Resort.Resort owner Pamuke…
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Tiger boosts Singapore-Phuket service
PHUKET: Singaporean low-cost carrier Tiger Airways is to start operating three additional flights a week to Phuket.The new flights will start on March 25, and will run during the evening, three days a week. Added to Tiger’s existing one flight per day, the new services will bring the total number of flights by the airline between Singapore and Phuket per…
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Patong gets disaster warning system
PATONG: An emergency alarm system has been installed in Patong and will be handed over to Patong Municipality tomorrow. The system will also be tested.The system will feature seven alarms, outside Kalim School, at Loma Park, outside the Bank of Asia branch, at the Sai Nam Yen intersection, outside the Baan Yin Dee Hotel, outside Suwan Keree school, and at…
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Japan travel giant pushes Phuket
PATONG: Ways to attract more Japanese tourists back to post-tsunami Phuket were top of the agenda during the annual meeting of Japan’s oldest tour company, JTB Corp, at the Diamond Cliff Resort and Spa.JTB Group President Sano Kazuhisa said JTB was planning to increase its promotion of areas affected by the tsunami, including Phuket, the Maldives, Langkawi, Penang, Sri Lanka…
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Qantas offers special deal to Phuket
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA: Australian national carrier Qantas and the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) have launched a joint “Rediscover Thailand” marketing campaign, aimed at helping Phuket recover from the December 26 tsunami.“Rediscover Thailand” will offer tourists a range of specially-priced packages, including one to Phuket including eight nights’ accommodation and airport transfers from A$1,089 (32,760 baht) per person, excluding taxes.The first…
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Health Dept moves to avert disease outbreak
PHUKET: The Department of Health (DOH) will step up its efforts to ensure there are no outbreaks of disease in tsunami-stricken areas and camps for displaced people, the department’s Director-General, Dr Somyos Charoensak said today.Dr Somyos made the announcement at a meeting of health officials from the six tsunami-affected provinces at the Phuket Merlin Hotel in Phuket City.Although no outbreaks…
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B5.25bn set aside to revive tourism
BANGKOK (The Nation): The Cabinet yesterday approved a 5.25-billion-baht budget to carrying out projects to revive tourism in the six Andaman-coast provinces hit by tsunami, after cutting the down the proposed figures by 4.11 billion baht.Government Spokesman Jakrapob Penkair said the Cabinet approved a budget of 2.651 billion baht from the normal budget for the 2005 fiscal year for projects…
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US seamen aid cleanup
PHUKET: The United States Ambassador to Thailand, Ralph Boyce, was in Phuket yesterday visiting sailors from the US Navy who were helping in the post-tsunami clean-up.Some of the 1,200 sailors, in Kamala for three days to clear wrecked buildings and other debris, joined Ambassador Boyce in delivering to Thai students food, clothes, books and cards made by American schoolchildren.Ambassador Boyce…
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Progress in tsunami fund theft case
PHUKET: Phuket City Police say they have promising leads relating to the apparent theft of more than 2 million baht in government tsunami relief funds, and expect to make an arrest soon.The funds were reported missing on February 15 by Metha Mekarat, Head of the Phuket Office of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (ODPM), who said 2.05 million baht had gone…
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Princess delivers inspiration
PATONG: HRH Princess Ubol Ratana Rajakanya visited Loma Park in Patong on yesterday to offer gifts and moral support to young survivors of the December 26 tsunami disaster. The Princess, dressed in black, arrived at the beach-side park at 5 pm, accompanied by Public Health Minister Sudarat Keyuraphan. There to greet them was Phuket Governor Udomsak Usawarangkura, Patong Mayor Pian Keesin…
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OrBorJor spends B8m on tsunami victims
PHUKET: Phuket Provincial Administration Organization (OrBorJor) spent 8.7 million baht between January 15 and February 21 on helping Phuket’s tsunami victims, OrBorJor president Anchalee Vanich Thepabutr disclosed.K. Anchalee said the OrBorJor had funded 89 cremations at 3,000 baht each, and given 5,000 baht apiece to 36 children who had lost parents.A total of 3,268,590 baht has been used to make…
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Patong “building site’ deters tour companies
PHUKET: Travel agents are still reluctant to send tourists to Phuket because property damaged by the tsunami has not yet been repaired, yesterday’s Patong renovation progress meeting heard.Pattanapong Aikvanich, the President of the Phuket Tourist Association (PTA), said discussions with tour companies and journalists from countries such as Germany, Australia and Sweden had revealed the feeling that tourists would not…
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Five “tigers’ to expedite Patong plan
PHUKET: Governor Udomsak Usawarangkura has appointed a committee of five “tigers” to speed up the implementation of the recovery plan for Patong Beach.The committee will be chaired by Vice-Governor Winai Buapradit, who will be joined by Patong Mayor Pian Keesin; Kathu District Chief Khantee Silapa; Kathu Police Station Superintendent Pol Lt Col Teeraphol Thipjaroen, and Phuket Tourist Association President Pattanapong…
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British arts minister pays respects
MAI KHAO: British Arts Minister Estelle Morris today became the latest member of a foreign government to pay respects to the tsunami dead.Ms Morris, accompanied by senior British police office Detective Chief Superintendent Nick Bracker, visited the Disaster Victims Identification (DVI) centre at Mai Khao, where she laid a wreath at the international wall of remembrance and observed a minute’s…
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Authorities prepare to move Yan Yao bodies
PHANG NGA: The stench from the 1,000-plus corpses of tsunami victims being held at Wat Yan Yao now permeates the temple and the area around it, and local people are too scared to enter the wat to make merit.Authorities are therefore planning to move the bodies to the Thai Tsunami Victim Identification Center (TTVI), in Mai Khao, Phuket.However, Phang Nga…
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Anzac invasion
PATONG: Almost 60 days after the tsunami hit, the first large group of Australian and New Zealand tourists arrived in Phuket this morning aboard a Star Cruise ship.Among those on hand to greet the 1,800 visitors were Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) Region 4 Director Suwalai Pinpradab, Phuket Tourist Authority President Pattanapong Aikwanich and a contingent of students from Patong…
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Festival to give Andaman coast a boost
PATONG (The Nation): Music, sports, a swimwear fashion show and even a bodybuilding contest will be among the highlights of a project to help restore international tourists’ confidence in the Andaman coast provinces.The “Loving Andaman” campaign, organized jointly by Thai Airways International (THAI), the Office of the Supreme Commander and the UBC Group, will also include a damage survey, and…
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For your nose only
BANGKOK: Doctors performing the wrong operations on their patients are the stuff of medical malpractice lore, so perhaps it was inevitable in plastic-surgery-obsessed Thailand: a woman who went in for cosmetic eye surgery emerged from the operating theater with a nose job instead. Nattha Masa, 40, paid the Ruamphaet Clinic in her home province of Samut Prakan 8,000 baht to…
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Deal struck for Kamala homeless
KAMALA: More than 70 families in Kamala have agreed to rent state land near the beach from the Phuket Provincial Administration Organization for minimal rents ranging from 20 baht to 1,000 baht per rai per year, figures fixed by Phuket Governor Udomsak Usawarangkura.The families – all of whom had been encroaching on state land before the disaster of December 26…
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Patong Mayor ordered to get a move on
PATONG: Phuket Vice-Governor Winai Buapradit yesterday ordered Patong Mayor Pian Keesin to pick up the pace in carrying out orders to make Patong Beach more orderly, remarking that the Patong beachfront area appears to be slipping back into pre-tsunami chaos.The order came during a meeting of a special committee set up to oversee the redevelopment of Patong Beach in line…
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