Phuket

Phuket wall collapse prompts buildings safety blitz

Published

8 years ago

Saturday, November 10, 2012

Phuket wall collapse prompts buildings safety blitz | Thaiger

PHUKET: Phuket Governor Maitri Inthusut has vowed to set up a task force to inspect building sites on hill slopes across the island in order to prevent any further incidents like the wall collapse that endangered the lives of a mother and child this week.

Atchara Jutisen, 28, and her 3-month-old baby boy Attawat “Big” Chottantikul last Sunday escaped injury when a four-meter-high concrete retaining wall crashed through the roof of their home, located at the bottom of a slope below The Senses Resort and Spa under construction on Soi Nanai 1 in Patong.

Ms Atchara later described their escape as “miraculous”.

After inspecting the site on Monday, Gov Maitri said, “I am ordering the officers involved to investigate this case in order to prevent similar incidents in the future. Not just here but across the entire province.”

He also called on officials to instigate what he called “strict protective measures”.

“Local authorities must be more careful before issuing building permits. In addition to scrutinizing building plans, the site must be surveyed to see if the ground is adequately compact and stable to support the weight of the structure,” Gov Maitri said.

“The wall [that collapsed] was built on sandy soil, meaning that the adhesive force between the structure and the ground was too weak to maintain integrity,” he explained.

“The authority to construct a building or other structure should be issued according to the law. If an officer considers that the construction does not meet those standards, they should not sign the building permit,” he added.

Gov Maitri was clear that corruption should not play any part in issuing such permits.

“Government officers in every department need to have ‘clean hands’. Do not take bribes or engage in corruption because if problems occur later, it can plainly affect other residents,” he warned.

After inspecting the damage to the homes in Soi Nanai 1, Governor Maitri said that those responsible for the hotel had already cleared the area and were preparing to build new houses for those residents displaced by the wall collapse.

Regarding government financial assistance, the Governor said, “As the incident was not a natural disaster and did not affect a wide area, it cannot be classified as a ‘disaster zone’. Therefore, compensation would be limited to those in dire need, and even then it would not reach to the full amount payable for a natural disaster.”

Lt Col Pratuang Polmana of the Patong Police said his officers were now looking into why the four-meter wall collapsed.

“Police will contact the hotel owner to ensure responsibility for the damage [to the houses] is recognized. At this stage, the damage is estimated to be about 300,000 baht,” Col Pratuang said.

“We will also contact the relevant departments to ask that they investigate construction being done at the site,” he added.

The Gazette notes that the resort operators have responded quickly to the situation. Ms Atchara’s damaged home has been demolished and work is already underway on building her a new home at the same location.

Additional reporting by Thawit Bilabdullar

— Kritsada Mueanhawong

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News Categories: Phuket

Transport

Footbridges stop luxury yacht travelling from Phuket to Samui

Published

12 hours ago

Thursday, April 15, 2021

Neill Fronde

Footbridges stop luxury yacht travelling from Phuket to Samui | Thaiger

PHOTO: Thailand's version of the Suez Canal blockage.

Footbridges in Phuket stood in the way of a luxury yacht travelling from its home in Phuket to Koh Samui when the boat was too tall to pass. Police received a call around 8 pm last night from the truck driver after his trailer carrying the yacht had trouble getting under one of several bridges for walkers to pass over the highway. The boat was travelling down Thepkrasattri Road, where it was stopped by the bridge near Baan Tha Reua School. The boat also had trouble at the pedestrian bridge at the Provincial Electricity Authority Thalang Branch and the bridge at Baan Lipon School in Srisoonthorn.

All the bridges were supposed to have a 5-metre clearance, though one observer speculated that all the repaving of the road over the years may have raised the road and lowered the clearance. Traffic police responded to the first bridge incident by sending officers to direct traffic and make sure bikes and cars didn’t pass and impeded progress on freeing the boat. The second incident about 30 minutes later was resolved by letting air out of the truck’s tires to lower it just enough to pass under the bridge. The third snag prompted the driver to go in person to the Thalang Police station to request help yet again.

This time police were less amused and suggested the truck driver try to resolve the issue himself and call back to the police only if he was unable to free the luxury yacht. A traffic police officer went to follow up with the stranded boat at the end of his shift and found the driver had given up and decided to return the yacht to its Phuket origin at Boat Lagoon Marina in Koh Kaew. The boat, now damaged from the bridge bumps, wasn’t going to make it to Surat Thani to be sailed to Koh Samui on this journey. The boat radar had broken off on one of the bridges. No word on any major damage to the pedestrian bridges.

SOURCE: The Phuket News

Coronavirus (Covid-19)

Hotel blog suggests Phuket should push ahead with July reopening despite Covid surge

Published

2 days ago

Wednesday, April 14, 2021

Neill Fronde

Hotel blog suggests Phuket should push ahead with July reopening despite Covid surge | Thaiger

PHOTO: Hotels and other tourism business are hoping the July 1st reopening goal can still be achieved.

A hotel information blog is claiming that, despite growing Covid-19 numbers, Phuket should stick to its schedule in reopening to travellers without quarantine in July. That’s only 2 and a half months away.

In an interview with the Director of Travel and Tourism Consulting at GlobalData, they stressed that while it is crucial to rein in the spread of Covid-19 and the B117 strain now menacing Thailand, the risk must not overshadow the need to push forward with vaccinations and the march towards eliminating the quarantine by July in order to save the tourism industry and all those dependent on it.

“The Phuket pilot program is essential in creating a path towards economic recovery for Thailand, a country heavily dependent on tourism. More than 17% of Thailand’s gross domestic product is attributed to tourism and the Covid-19 pandemic has lead to the worst economic free-fall in over 20 years”

The blog acknowledges the inherent risk and possible appearance of foolishness to prioritise the plans to reopen and carry on with the same rollout schedule. But they urge Thai authorities to consider that July 1 is still 2 and a half months away, leaving ample time to recover and make progress towards the approaching Phuket reopening. A vital aspect of the reopening plan lies in vaccinating over 70% of Phuket’s provincial residents, a sizable task, but one that brings great benefit with or without the scheduled reopening.

“Pushing ahead to achieve this goal puts Phuket on track to welcome back tourists, perhaps in a “bio-bubble”, and restart the economy. The economy is desperate with household debt growing, pushing the government to enact emergency decrees to provide relief. These households need the return of tourism and the influx of cash international tourists will bring.”

The blog hopes that Thai authorities can balance the necessary Covid-19 safety measures in Phuket to protect the Thai population with the economic need to bring back tourism. They believe that with sufficient measures in place, vaccinated locals could welcome vaccinated international tourists back to Phuket reopening safely in July.

SOURCE: Hotel News Resource

Coronavirus (Covid-19)

UPDATE: Field hospitals being established in Covid hot zones around Thailand

Published

3 days ago

Tuesday, April 13, 2021

Tim Newton

UPDATE: Field hospitals being established in Covid hot zones around Thailand | Thaiger

UPDATE: The field hospital in Bangkok’s Bang Bon district, west of the Chao Phraya river, had its first 10 Covid patients today. The director of the medical services office of the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration says that the 10 patients into the makeshift hospital, located at the Chalerm Phra Kiat Stadium, will enable assessment of the performance by the medical team, before more patients arrive – Thai PBS World

ORIGINAL STORY: Despite the confident posture and Songkran going ahead, amid restrictions, there is a lot of background activity which suggest the authorities are getting ready for a surge of new infections at the end of the Songkran break, officially this Thursday (but in reality, next Sunday at the end of the weekend when most people who travelled home will return for a resumption of work).

The Thai lunar new year celebrations – Songkran – are the largest mass movement of Thais each year, a source for a huge leap in road deaths and accidents. And, this year, a potential super-spreader event.

Quietly, at least 3,000 extra beds have been prepared in 10 field hospitals around Bangkok. The government has also confirmed that additional field hospitals are being set up in other potential ‘hot zones’, including Phuket, Chiang Mai, Chonburi and Hua Hin. Some of them were set up last year, and since closed, and now being prepared for new positive infections.

One Thai person who had been in one of the field hospitals put together a check-list of things to take IF you end up as an invited ‘guest’ HERE.

The CCSA say they are looking for additional beds in hotels and previous state quarantine facilities (where repatriating Thais were housed for their free quarantine) to be used if needed.

This year’s Songkran had bad timing, coming just a week after a number of major clusters were identified around some of Bangkok’s popular nightlife areas in 3 key inner city districts. Even before Songkran these isolated clusters had already spread into the provinces. In the weekend before Songkran the government had already listed 37 provinces which had instigated some form of paperwork or restrictions for people who had been in any of the 3 Bangkok districts.

The government also leapt on the source of the new outbreaks – bars, clubs and entertainment venues – and promptly shut them down for at least 2 weeks. At this stage it looks likely that that ban will be extended beyond the 2 weeks and, depending on the extent of new infections following the Songkran holiday, additional restrictions will also be added.

Even today the Civil Aviation Authority published a number of new in-flight restrictions for passengers – another blow to the hard-hit domestic aviation sector.