Patong sea wall: residents open fire

PHUKET TOWN: Patong residents petitioned Governor CEO Vasaputi Pongpayome today, alleging corruption over a 40-million-baht project to build a retaining wall along Patong Beach. They also say the seashore wall, which will vary in height from two meters to 3.5 meters along a distance of about 1.5 kilometers, will be an environmental disaster. Construction of the wall has already begun. The Governor accepted the petition from one of the nine signatories at his office in Provincial Hall about 2 pm this afternoon. He said that specialists in environmental landscaping will be assigned to inspect the project and a check would be made on the costings, too. “This government didn’t plan the project but if the construction causes no damage to the environment of Patong, it will continue,” Gov Pongpayome told the Gazette. The petition claims that 120,000 baht had already gone missing from the project’s budget and that, in any case, an expert had told them that the wall could be constructed for 25 million baht – 15 million baht less than the contracted price. The sea wall plan dates from the time of former Patong Mayor Pian Keesin, who resigned in October 2001 after his budget proposal was rejected in a council vote.