Asia (Page 2,505)

More use of boats to ‘ease road traffic’

The Office of Transport and Traffic Policy and Planning (OTP) will submit plans to develop existing and new canal routes to promote passenger boat transportation in a bid to ease traffic congestion in the capital.

OTP director Punya Chupanit on Tuesday revealed the OTP had carried out a feasibility study on maritime travel development in Bangkok and its adjacent provinces from this year to 2032 to expand waterway routes from a total of 131.2km to 196.6km.

The plan will be submitted to the Transport Ministry for consideration and is expected to require a budget of around 9.32 billion baht, Mr Punya said.

From that figure, 1.32 billion baht would be needed to develop piers and facilities for the 65.4-km existing waterway routes along the Chao Phraya River and Phadung Krung Kasem and Prawet Buri Rom canals.

The rest would fund the four new canal routes from this year to 2027.

The first project is the Sai Mai-Phra Khanong route on the Lat Phrao Canal. The route will be 25.7km long and will have 23 piers. The project will need a budget of 1.44 billion baht.

About 3.24 billion baht would be needed to develop the Saen Saep Canal route. The project will have three parts.

The first part is 12km long from Wat Si Bunrueang to Suwinthawong Road. The project will have 16 piers and is expected to be completed in three years’ time. The second section is 17.3km long, from Phan Pha Lilat Bridge to Wat Si Bunrueang, and it will have 28 piers. The third part will be 1.5km long from Phan Pha Lilat Bridge to Phra Sumen Fort and will have three piers. The OTP expects the extension of passenger boat services along the Saen Saep Canal to be completed in 2027.

The third route will be an expansion of the Mahasawat-Bangkok Noi canals. The route will be 17.1km long with 18 piers. It will link Pratu Nam Chimphli to Sirirat Hospital. The project budget is expected to be 397.53 million baht and will be completed within two years.

The last route is 28km long on Mahasawat Canal, which will have 13 piers connecting Pratu Nam Mahasawat to Wat Chaiyaphrueksamal. The project’s budget is expected to be 219.93 million baht, and it will be completed in 2025.

The OTP also has a long-term plan (2028-2032), Mr Punya said. The OTP will need about 2.69 billion baht to develop three projects to extend boat services to people living in Pathum Thani province, north of Bangkok.

The first route will develop along the Prem Prachakon Canal. The OTP expects to have piers for passenger boat services connecting Wat Rangsit in Pathum Thani to the Bang Sue area in Bangkok.

The second route will be an extension along the Chao Phraya River from Pak Kret pier in Nonthaburi to Muang district in Pathum Thani.

The third route will be an extension route of the Prawet Buri Rom Canal on the section of Iam Sombat Market to Wat Sangkaracha.

The OTP is confident the plan will be approved and sent to the new cabinet for further approval this year as it is a major investment to alleviate traffic congestion in the capital and adjacent provinces, Mr Punya said.

Heavy downpours have brought on landslides and flash floods, damaging roads in Nan and Mae Hong Son in the North and Tak and Kanchanaburi in the West.

Continuous rains have pummeled Pua and Bo Kluea districts in Nan province, with mountain slopes unable to absorb rainwater resulting in three landslides along Highway 1256 and four along Highway 1081, blocking traffic.

The Highway Department of Bo Kluea district has ordered a maintenance and construction team in Phichit to install a prefabricated Bailey bridge at those parts of the highways hit by landslides. It is estimated it will take a few days before traffic can resume.

On Tuesday, Nan provincial governor Wiboon Waewbandit and local officials visited Bo Kluea district to inspect damage from the heavy rains and landslides. Officials said Ban Bo Luang School is being used as a temporary shelter for locals from 14 households at risk of being hit by landslides.

Meanwhile, in Tak, continuing rain has caused subsidence on roads and flash floods damaging both Mae Sot district of Tak and the neighbouring Myawaddy township in Myanmar.

Heavy rains have inundated the main road connecting Myawaddy to Hpa-An township in Karen State. Households in Myawaddy were also flooded, and traffic and transport were suspended.

On Tuesday, subsidence occurred on Highway 105 in Tha Song Yang district of Tak, causing a five-metre deep and 60-metre-long crack along the road, which halted traffic.

Tak Highway District 2 (Mae Sot Office) has built an emergency road diversion and it plans to install a Bailey bridge on damaged roads.

The Geohazards Operation Centre has warned that the provinces of Mae Hong Son and Nan in the North and Tak and Kanchanaburi in the West will see flash floods until tomorrow.

The Thai Meteorological Department’s forecasts from Tuesday till Friday indicated that a moderate southern monsoon will lie across the Andaman Sea and the Gulf of Thailand.

At the same time, a low-pressure trough will cover southern China and northern Vietnam, resulting in heavy rains across Thailand’s North.

At the weekend, the moderate trough will move past the North and Northeast of Thailand and Laos to join the low-pressure trough covering northern Vietnam.

PPRP signals interest in joining new bloc

The Palang Pracharath Party (PPRP) and Chartthaipattana Party have hinted that they are ready to join a Pheu Thai-led political alliance if formally invited.

Commenting on the prospects of the PPRP joining the alliance after the Bhumjaithai Party on Monday agreed to team up with Pheu Thai, PPRP secretary-general Capt Thamanat Prompow said on Tuesday that Pheu Thai had not yet approached the PPPR since their previous talks at Pheu Thai’s headquarters on July 23.

“We have not been contacted yet. It is up to Pheu Thai to decide whether to invite us. We only have to keep silent in line with political etiquette,” Capt Thamanat said.

“I believe Pheu Thai is also currently approaching other parties,” he added.

Asked about Pheu Thai’s stance that the Pheu Thai-led coalition will exclude the “uncle” parties and whether some PPRP MPs will act as renegades, leaving the party and joining the coalition, Capt Thamanat said that party members must act in line with a party resolution.

Capt Thamanat said the dispute over whether such parties should be included in the new coalition is of secondary importance.

“What matters most is to form a new government so it can solve problems facing the country,” Capt Thamanat said.

The so-called “uncle” parties are those linked with the military leaders of the 2014 coup. The “uncles” refer to Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, the former United Thai Nation Party chief adviser and prime ministerial candidate, and Gen Prawit Wongsuwon, the PPRP leader and its prime ministerial candidate.

Asked if it is acceptable to the PPRP if Pheu Thai demands Gen Prawit step down as its leader in exchange for the PPRP joining the bloc, Capt Thamanat insisted that Gen Prawit remains the party leader.

Before attending a cabinet meeting yesterday, Gen Prawit said there had been no approach from Pheu Thai so far. Chartthaipattana leader Varawut Silpa-archa said Pheu Thai has to approach his party about joining the coalition.

The two parties were previously in talks on July 23, and they must meet for talks again ahead of the next prime ministerial vote, said Mr Varawut, who serves as Natural Resources and Environment Minister.

“We are waiting for Pheu Thai to send an invitation,” he said.

He reiterated the party’s stance that keeping Section 112 of the Criminal Code, known as the lese majeste law, intact is a precondition for joining a coalition government.

Mr Varawut said it should be left to Pheu Thai to nominate a prime ministerial candidate who it deems fit for the next vote in parliament.

Originally scheduled for Aug 4, the vote to select a new prime minister was cancelled after the Constitutional Court postponed to Aug 16 its decision on whether to accept a petition seeking its ruling on whether parliament’s decision on July 19 to reject the renomination of Move Forward Party leader Pita Limjaroenrat as prime minister was constitutional.

Bhumjaithai leader Anutin Charn- virakul on Tuesday said the Pheu Thai-led alliance now has the support of more than 250 MPs, or more than half of the total of 500 MPs to form a government.

“Don’t worry. A minority government will not happen,” he said, adding that efforts are being made to gather additional support from other parties and senators for a PM candidate nominated by the bloc.

Under the constitution, a PM candidate needs the support of at least half of the 750 members of both the lower and upper chambers of parliament or 376 votes in total.

Passengers will need to buckle up while riding in a taxi or other public transport vehicles starting from Nov 6, according to the Royal Thai Police.

The announcement, published in the Royal Gazette on Tuesday and signed by national police chief Pol Gen Damrongsak Kittiprapas, cited Section 123/3 of the Land Transportation Act and focused on the requirement for taxi drivers to ensure all passengers wear seatbelts.

The warning may be made verbally, by a sign or signs present and visible inside the vehicle, through an audio recording played inside the vehicle or via other means.

The driver must also inform passengers they must sit in designated seats, as well as never allow more than the legally permitted number of passengers into the vehicle on each trip.

No supplementary seating installed without official permission may be offered to passengers to sit on, either.

No passengers may stand inside a moving vehicle unless there is a designated area for standing.

Also, passengers may not stick any part of their body out of a moving public transport vehicle.

The announcement will take effect 90 days from its publication in the Royal Gazette or on Nov 6.

Phuket: At least three tonnes of oil from a slick suspected to have come from a ship, have been removed from Sirinan National Park and Koh Racha Yai after being washed ashore.

Pornsri Suthanaruk, deputy director-general of the Department of Marine and Coastal Resources, on Tuesday met with maritime and coastal ecosystem experts, the director of Marine and Coastal Resources Research Centre, Upper Andaman Sea branch, and Phuket deputy governor Amnuay Pinsuwan to discuss clean-up measures.

The spill is believed to have originated from neighbouring Phangnga province last Wednesday before reaching Koh Racha Yai in Phuket on Sunday.

Ms Pornsri said about two tonnes of oil have been collected at Sirinat National Park and one tonne at Koh Racha Yai in Phuket.

The environmental impact was also being assessed as the slick posed a threat to 4,000 rai of undersea coral extending from Phangnga to Phuket.

Ms Pornsri said officials were examining sea areas as well as marine creatures affected by the slick.

She added authorities were removing as much oil as they could and as quickly as possible to prevent it from seeping into the sand and creating a long-term hazard to shellfish.

The department revealed that four sea turtles had died as a result of the slick. Oil found in their stomachs suggested it had come from a tanker or cargo ship.

The department also warned tourists against swimming and venturing on contaminated beaches. They were asked to alert the authorities to any oil they come across.

To establish the slick’s source, the department has conducted a simulation of sea currents and wind speed over the past 10 days. The test results showed the spill might have occurred about 90 nautical miles east of Phuket.

Ms Pornsri said the Phuket provincial office had information that might prove useful in identifying the vessel responsible for the spill using ship movement data compiled by the Marine Department.