One-stop shop for yachts to reopen

CHALONG: Phuket Governor CEO Pongpayome Vasaputi will reopen the “one-stop shop” in Chalong for visiting yachts and their crews next Monday. The Phuket Port Control Center (PPCC), was originally opened in 1999 by the then-Governor Chadej Insawang. It was closed down more than a year ago, officially because there were not enough officers to man it and there was no budget to maintain the office. The decision to resurrect the PPCC came out of the Tourism Workshop in Phuket last month, chaired by Deputy PM Pongpol Adireksarn. Pongpol gave the local Immigration Department three months to set the new Chalong Pier up to provide a one-stop service for visiting boats. Manning the PPCC will be officers from Immigration, Customs, the Harbor Master’s Office and Chalong Tambon Administration Organization (OrBorTor). The OrBorTor’s role is to collect a “mooring fee”, Gov Pongpayome told the Gazette. He stressed that this was not the same as the widely criticized “Phuket Waters Fee” collected by the OrBorTor during the previous incarnation of the PPCC. The fee will apply only to boats mooring in Ao Chalong, he said. According to statistics compiled by the Harbor Master’s Office, 1,018 private boats arrived in Phuket last year, while 997 departed. This year, up until the end of September, the trend was reversed, with 615 boats arriving and 789 boats leaving.