Smart ID cards available again

PHUKET CITY: Phuket Governor Niran Kalayanamit yesterday morning announced that “Smart ID cards” for Thai citizens are now available at Muang District Office – again.

The new-style cards, which have a memory chip for storing personal data such as date of birth, physical description and even the holder’s house registration information, became unavailable in January last year when the local office of the Department of Local Administration ran out of them.

At the time, the office had to place an order with the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology (ICT), which makes the cards. Phuket received just 1,000 of the new cards in the initial shipment nationwide.

Since then, some 26 million smart ID cards have been made and are now being distributed to District Offices around the country.

The Muang District Office is expecting more than 150 people a day to apply for the new cards.