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HEADLINES [click on headline to view story]:

World’s largest fireworks fizzle over Pattaya bay

Motorway connection moved to Sukhumvit Road

Community congratulates local police chief promoted to Metropolitan commander

Vagrants removed after local protests

Business sector raises 300,000 baht for SOS Rice

Ocean 1 Tower gets preliminary green light

Guatemalan man arrested after schoolteacher robbed of 1/2M baht

Uzbekistani prostitutes and their Thai pimps arrested in police sting

Dolphin Roundabout collides with reporters’ truck

Promotions and transfer to Loey Province for three Tourist Police officers

Chaowarith becomes head of new Koh Chan District


World’s largest fireworks fizzle over Pattaya bay

The two ten-year-old Japanese twins Momoko and Hinako received certificates for witnessing the launch of the “World’s Largest Firework”.

Ariyawat Nuamsawat
Disappointment reigned, and dangerous fiery material rained, when the much touted world’s largest fireworks display crashed and burned into Pattaya bay last Sunday.
After a successful preliminary round of fireworks, the record breaking 130 cm giant firework shot up only 130 meters into the air instead of 800 meters as planned. It then crashed into Pattaya Bay before exploding with a tremendous boom and spewing fire in all directions, damaging Pattaya’s rescue boat and the Pattaya Sea Rescue Unit building. No injuries were reported.

This is the canister that contained the world’s largest fireworks.
The event came about as a cooperation between Pattaya City and the Japanese ITTE-Q! at NTV television station. It was held in part to celebrate His Majesty the King’s 80th birthday and in part to grant a wish to Japanese twins Momoko and Hinako.
The event was also held to celebrate 120 years of Thai-Japanese friendship.
The young Japanese twins had made a wish to the television station, asking that they could be present when the world record was broken. The previous record was a 120 cm firework set off in Japan. The television station organizing team cooperated with the Thailand Fireworks Club and Ripley’s Believe it or Not in Pattaya, to fulfill the 2 girls’ dream.
The 130cm giant firework contained 120 smaller colored fireworks, and another 6 rare fireworks. The activity was to have been presented with a “world’s extreme certificate” from Ripley’s Believe it or Not in Pattaya.
Chikashi Tanakajima, managing director of Thai Mikasa Co., Ltd., co-producers of the display, admitted the show didn’t go as planned and accepted that his company’s insurance would bear the cost for all damage sustained by the Sea Rescue Unit. “Luckily it didn’t cause serious damage,” he said.
Somporn Naksuetrong, manager of Ripley’s Believe it or Not in Pattaya, said that it was a pity things didn’t go as planned. However, he said that it still qualified as a world record, as it was the world’s largest firework, and it actually did perform, even if not quite as well as planned.


Motorway connection moved to Sukhumvit Road

Purchase of land on original Third Road route too expensive says government

Sawittree Namwiwatsuk
The Department of Highways has made changes to the Pattaya Motorway project so that the new highway will end at Sukhumvit Road instead of Pattaya Third Road, in view of the extremely high cost of surrendering land to the government.

Ruangrug Boonyanipat, project engineer responsible for the construction of Sections 3 and 4, points out the new route.

Chonburi-Pattaya Highway No 7, or Pattaya Motorway as it is also known, is an urgently needed project intended to support the increasing volume of traffic entering Pattaya City, and for speedy travel to and from Suvarnabhumi International Airport.
An accelerated project that was approved under the 2006 budget year with a price tag for construction of more than 2 billion baht, the road is expected to be ready by the end of next year.
The construction budget has been divided into four parts. Sections 1 and 2 start from the 4km + 100 mark and finish at the 42km + 400 mark, running for a total of 38.3 km. This section uses the route of the previous Special Highway No 7, connecting Chonburi with Pattaya.
As a standard motorway construction it requires an additional four traffic lanes with 3.5 meters for each lane. There is a central concrete barrier with new lighting installed and eight U-turn flyovers.
It is Sections 3 and 4 that are being modified to finish at Sukhumvit Road, rather than at Pattaya Third Road. Landowners have in recent years constructed a large number of residential and commercial buildings in the Third Road vicinity, which would cost too much under compulsory purchase orders. The Department of Lands is now overseeing adjustment of the plan so that the motorway would end at Sukhumvit in North Pattaya, near the Jet gas station.
Ruangrug Boonyanipat, project engineer responsible for the construction of Sections 3 and 4 said that when the original route was being surveyed four or five years ago, the land around the proposed Third Road connection was not heavily developed. The Department of Highways had therefore decided to use this route but after the plan was announced land prices in the immediate area had soared.
Consequently, it has been decided to change the route and the connection will now be at Sukhumvit Road.
Ruangrug said that Sections 1 and 2 are 60 percent completed and will be finished in May next year. However, the revised route for Sections 3 and 4 involves the purchase of 19 separate plots of land at the 2km+150 and the 3km+600 markers, and adjustments to the bridge over the railway at the 1km + 744.875 marker. Consequently, Section 3 is only 25 percent complete while Section 4 is 8 percent complete.
Despite this, says Ruangrug, the motorway is still expected to be finished and open for service at the end of 2008.


Community congratulates local police chief promoted to Metropolitan commander

Atsawin rose to fame in solving Russian murder case

Ariyawat Nuamsawat
The Pattaya Business and Tourism Association held a farewell party on September 20 for Pol Lt Gen Atsawin Kwanmuang, commander of the Provincial Police Region 2, who is being transferred to the Metropolitan area as commander of the Metropolitan Police.
The venue for the party was Bangkok Hospital Pattaya, with a large number of leading figures from the worlds of business and politics turning up to offer their good wishes and congratulations to the respected police chief.

Pol. Lt. Gen. Atsawin Kwanmuang and his wife Mrs. Wasana Kwanmuang say farewell to their friends in Pattaya.
Pol Lt Gen Atsawin was a Royal Police Cadet in Class No 30 at the Police Academy, and graduated in Class 16 from the High Level Police Administration Course, and in Class 45 from the National Defense College in Thailand. He became a police officer in 1977. In 2002 he was appointed deputy commander of the crime suppression division of the Central Investigation Bureau before becoming commander of Provincial Police Region 2.
Pol Lt Gen Atsawin is married to Wasana, and the couple have three children. Regarded as a highly effective crime suppression officer, one of the most high profile cases in which Pol Lt Gen Atsawin has been involved in recent years was the investigation of the car-bomb plot to kill former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. As commander of the Provincial Police in Region 2, he came to national and international prominence in bringing to justice the killer of the two Russian women who were shot on Jomtien Beach early this year.


Vagrants removed after local protests

Ariyawat Nuamsawat
Twenty-one vagrants who had been pestering residents and visitors in South Pattaya were rounded up in a joint operation between the Pattaya Social Welfare Department and Pattaya Police Station on September 25.

Police and welfare officers rounded up and evicted homeless people from their makeshift homes in South Pattaya.

The vagrants had been congregating around Khao Prayai Park at the South Pattaya flyover and on the open land at the junction with Pattaya Third Road.
Some had been soliciting sex, while others had been committing petty crimes such as snatching property. Males, females and transvestites, totaling 21 people and aged between 16 and 28 years, were taken into custody. Of these, 14 were sent to the Social Welfare Center for the Homeless in Pakkred, Nonthaburi, and the remaining seven had their names recorded before they were released with a warning.
Pol Lt Col Sirichai Khruprasertwattana, deputy superintendent at Pattaya Police Station said that the vagrants were removed because of complaints received by members of the public and by tourists, and that if the situation had continued into the high season it would have worsened.


Business sector raises 300,000 baht for SOS Rice

Ariyawat Nuamsawat
Business people in Pattaya have raised more than 300,000 baht for the SOS Rice campaign that supplies food to orphaned and impoverished children.
President of SOS Rice Pattaya Mrs Premruedee Jittiwuttikarn headed a fund-raising dinner held around the swimming pool area of the Blue Elephant restaurant on Soi Greenway on September 21.
The event was well attended, with guests including high-profile names such as former Chonburi Senator Santsak Ngampiches, former Chonburi Member of Parliament Chanyuth Hengtrakul, Banglamung District Chief Pratheep Jongsuebtham, mayoral advisor Itthipol Khunplome, and president of the Union of Pattaya Entrepreneurs Sanga Kijsamret.
SOS Rice Pattaya campaigns for the donation of food and money that is used to help vagrant, poor and handicapped children, including children in the drug eradication projects in the Chonburi area. Within the scope of the campaign are at least 2,000 children who together need 600 kg of rice to eat every day, which adds up to more than 210,000 kg of rice a year.
During the campaign, donation boxes are set up at most large supermarkets around the city to collect bags of rice and money.
The fund-raiser dinner resulted in donations of more than 300,000 baht.


Ocean 1 Tower gets preliminary green light

Passes localized referendum

Local citizenry voiced their worries about public utilities in the community after the Ocean 1 Tower is completed.

Ariyawat Nuamsawat
Despite concerns over utilities, safety and traffic, the 91-storey Ocean 1 Tower passed a localized referendum in Jomtien on October 1.
People living or working within a 1 kilometer radius of the project were invited to vote after voicing their concerns and listening to answers from project managers and local government officials. Approximately 400 people turned up for the hearing and subsequent referendum.
The hearing was also attended by representatives from the Office of Natural Resources, Environmental Policy and Planning, city councilors, representatives from 27 communities, and tourism entrepreneurs.
One of the main concerns raised at the meeting was about water, or lack thereof. Environmental researcher Sitthichai Tantanasarit responded that the city’s water resources would be enough to handle the 700-800 m3 of water the Ocean 1 Tower would use per day, as only half of this amount, 400 m3 of water, would need to come from the city supply. The other 400 m3 of Ocean 1 Tower’s daily water needs would come from recycled sources.
Sitthichai went on to say that project is being planned to stay within the law regarding it being the correct distance from the sea, and providing management against disasters. Also, because of the proposed building’s height, the project will require a wind tunnel test.
Chonburi Province officials have voiced concern about public utility problems, but Weera Sinto, GM of N.S. Consultant Co., Ltd., the advisor and designer of the environmental system for the construction project, said he will keep a close eye on progress to make sure all concerns are addressed properly, such as protection against fire, traffic, eradicating wastewater, public utilities, and scenery.
A committee also will be set up with Pattaya City to check the project and control construction. Ocean 1 Tower officials have agreed to support a budget of 7 million baht for Pattaya City to develop and solve problems in the community around the project area, and they will set aside a free commerce area of 50 m2 for the community.
Tawich Chaisawangwong, Pattaya City Council chairman, said that the Ocean 1 Tower project had been submitted to the Pattaya Council for discussion and approval. There had been some doubts about the effect on the environment and public utilities, but in his opinion, he believes this project will be good for the city’s tourism image, and would create jobs and tax revenue for the local government.
After all the talk was over, most of the local villagers agreed to proceed, as they hope to receive benefits and increase their daily income after the project starts.
For the next step, project plans will be submitted to the Office of Natural Resources, Environmental Policy and Planning for consideration this October, and is expected that plans will be approved soon.
Ocean 1 Tower will have 91 floors and be more than 305 meters high, with 611 rooms and a 2 story plaza. The project will take 4-5 years to complete.


Guatemalan man arrested after schoolteacher robbed of 1/2M baht

Boonlua Chatree
Pattaya police working in conjunction with Metropolitan police have arrested a Guatemalan man in Bangkok’s MBK Center in connection with the robbery of 500,000 baht from a schoolteacher in Pattaya.

Mrs Srongporn Buab-Em (left), the victim of the robbery, provides a positive identification of Jose Luis Perez Mendoza.

Police had tracked three men after viewing images from a CCTV recording, and are now in search of his two accomplices.
The robbery had taken place during the early afternoon of September 26, when three men described as being of Middle Eastern appearance had approached the teacher as she was parking her car outside Arunothai School in Central Pattaya. They had punctured a rear tire on her car, and when she got out of the vehicle to check, they had taken the 500,000 baht that she had just withdrawn from the bank, and which was in a brown bag on the front seat, and fled in a Toyota Yaris.
Pattaya police had checked the CCTV camera at the Bank of Ayudhaya Pattaya Klang Branch from which the money had been withdraw and discovered that the three men had followed their victim from the bank.
A liaison team was formed between the Pattaya and the Metropolitan police. Pol Col Sombat Milintajinda, superintendent investigator at General Headquarters Metropolitan 6 led the Bangkok team, assisted by Pol Lt Col Chootrakul Youmadee and a number of other Metropolitan 6 officers. They worked in direct cooperation with Pol Col Sutin Suppuang, superintendent at Pattaya Police Station, and with Pattaya police investigator Pol Maj Chaiyakrit Thong-In.
The thieves were quickly traced, and the day after the robbery, on September 27, Pattaya police obtained an arrest warrant from Pattaya Provincial Court. The Metropolitan police team followed the three men to the fourth floor of the MBK Center in Bangkok’s Pratunam district, where they had gone shopping, and moved in to arrest them.
Two of the thieves fled, but police were able to detain Jose Luis Perez Mendoza, a 41-year-old Guatemalan national. Searching him, they found 53,400 baht, and evidence of a transfer in the amount of 62,200 baht from the Siam Commercial Bank Maboonkrong 2 Sub-branch to his wife in Bogota, Columbia. Mendoza was transferred to Pattaya Police Station for questioning.
Mrs Srongporn Buab-Em, the 45-year-old victim of the robbery, was able to identify Mendoza. Police are confident of finding the other two men very quickly.


Uzbekistani prostitutes and their Thai pimps arrested in police sting

Three Uzbekistani women and two Thai pimps were arrested for prostitution.

Boonlua Chatree
Pattaya police and Immigration officials have arrested three Uzbekistani women and two Thai pimps on prostitution charges following an undercover operation.
Investigations having targeted the women and their minders, undercover officers posing as potential clients arranged a price of 1,500 baht per woman for a liaison during the afternoon of September 21.
The investigating team led by Pol Col Watchara Sangworayothin, deputy commander of the Immigration Police, Pol Col Ittipol Ittisarnronnachai, superintendent at Pattaya Immigration, and Pol Lt Col Prasart Khemaprasit, inspector at the crime suppression division, then made copies of the bank notes before the police officers left for their appointment at the Gulf Siam Hotel and Resort in North Pattaya.
The pimps brought the three foreign females to room numbers 203, 205 and 206 of the hotel, which had been arranged and paid for. At the same time the police who were lying in wait presented themselves and arrested the women in the rooms, along with the pimps, and escorted all five to the Pattaya Immigration Bureau.
Sathaporn Jaiyod, 39, from Utaradit and Amornsit Chaiyanam, 33, from Ubon Ratchatani, were charged with managing women for sex or obscene acts. Both men admitted the charges.
The three women were all Uzbekistani nationals, identified as Miss Sattorova Nargiza, 24, Miss Shoyimova Nilufar, 27, and Miss Dilnoza Aliyeva, 27. They were charged with soliciting sex, and using printed documents to promote themselves for sexual purposes.
In a separate incident, an Uzbekistani women identified as Miss Naraniava Tatiyana, 22, was arrested for soliciting sex to foreign tourists in front of the VC Hotel in South Pattaya. Officers also charged her with illegally staying in the kingdom.


Dolphin Roundabout collides with reporters’ truck

Awed tourists photograph scene for souvenir

Boonlua Chatree
Two sports reporters somehow managed to drive their pickup truck halfway up the steps of the fountain at the Dolphin Roundabout after a night out celebrating the end of the petanque finals.
The reporters, from the Siam Keela Rai Wan sports newspaper, said they were unfamiliar with the road. The truck, which attracted crowds of awed passers-by, had to be lifted off the roundabout with a crane.
Both men were only slightly injured, but the company-owned truck suffered considerable damage.
Pattaya Police Station received a report of the accident at 4 a.m. on September 24, and officers and Sawang Boriboon Foundation rescue workers rushed to the scene.
The vehicle was a red four-door Nissan Frontier pickup with a Siam Keela Rai Wan sticker boldly displayed on the windshield and on the side of the truck. It was mounted on the second step of the Dolphin Roundabout fountain, about 2.5 meters above the level of the road.
Driver Juthawut Thiwarat, 28, a resident of Pakkred in Nonthaburi Province, was wedged behind the wheel and had minor injuries to his forehead. Phichitchai Bho-ar-lai, 32, of Roi-et Province was unconscious in the back behind the driver’s seat. Officers extricated the men from the pickup and rushed Phichitchai to Pattaya Memorial Hospital. Fortunately, neither had sustained serious injuries.
Police questioned both of the reporters in detail. They also examined the scene and found there was significant damage done to city property, including the decorative plants and the tiles around the fountain, three spotlights, and five sprinklers. Pattaya City will come up with an estimate for the damage.
With the cooperation of the electrical authority, the electric current was turned off before a crane lifted the vehicle out of the fountain. A crowd of passers-by, Thais and foreigners, were amazed that the truck had made it so far up the fountain steps. Many took photos with their mobile phone cameras as a souvenir of the occasion.
There were many witnesses and they all told the police the same story. The truck had been coming at a very high speed along North Pattaya Road towards the Dolphin Roundabout. Speculation was that the driver was intoxicated or unfamiliar with the road, because he crashed straight into the Dolphin Roundabout and ended up completely stuck on the second step of the fountain.
A woman riding a motorbike around the roundabout had a lucky escape when the truck narrowly missed her.
Juthawut said that the Siam Keela Rai Wan news team had been in Pattaya to cover the 43rd Petanque World Championship. Participants from 60 countries had attended the event at the indoor stadium of the Eastern Sports Center on Soi Chaiyapuek 2 over the period September 19 to 23. On the last night of the event, the news team celebrated the end of the championships and Phichitchai suggested to Juthawut a further celebration at a nightclub before going back.
Juthawut was driving the company car. He said he was drunk, and that Phichitchai, who was quite drunk, had fallen asleep in the rear seat.
Juthawut said that he was driving in the direction of North Pattaya to their hotel at a high rate of speed, but that he was unfamiliar with the local roads. He did not see the Dolphin Roundabout. He was not able to stop in time.
Police say that the truck has been impounded as evidence, and that both of the reporters will be questioned in more detail. Pattaya City will estimate the damages done to city property, and will charge their company accordingly.


Promotions and transfer to Loey Province for three Tourist Police officers

Pattaya Tourist Police held a farewell party for three officers who have been promoted and transferred to Loey Province.

Boonlua Chatree
Pattaya Tourist Police held a farewell party on September 25 for three officers who have been promoted and transferred to Loey Province.
Hosted by Pol Lt Col Suwan Un-Anan, inspector of Tourist Police 4 in Pattaya, the gathering took place at the parking lot in front of Pattaya Tourist Police Station.
Pol Capt Yotsawat Suwannoi has been promoted to Police Major and becomes inspector of the Tourist Police in Loey Province. Pol Capt Wattana Tassaneeyanon and Pol Capt Pallop Khamnualthong are both also promoted to Police Major and will take up posts at Phukradung Police Station in Loey Province.
The party also celebrated Pol Sub Lt Suttipong Kongsombat’s promotion to Police Senior Sergeant Major.
Officers of the Volunteer Tourist Police joined the regular officers for the celebration, along with a large number of well-wishers from Pattaya’s business community.


Chaowarith becomes head of new Koh Chan District

Ariyawat Nuamsawat
Deputy chief clerk of Banglamung District Chaowarith Saeng-uthai has been promoted to the position of chief district officer of Koh Chan District in Chonburi Province, taking up his new role on September 28.

Pratheep Jongsuebtham (left), chief clerk at Banglamung District, congratulates Chaowarith Saeng-uthai (right) on his promotion to the position of chief district officer of Koh Chan District in Chonburi Province.

Chaowarith, who is 46, had been deputy chief clerk at Banglamung District for slightly less than six years, and had earned the respect of colleagues and the public alike for his administration skills, particularly in the areas of businesses and entertainment venues, and his vigilance in helping to control the local drugs problem.
Pratheep Jongsuebtham, chief clerk at Banglamung District, congratulated Chaowarith on his move, saying that with his skills he has the potential to reach the position of governor within a short period of time.
Located next to Panus Nikhom District in Chonburi Province, Koh Chan was previously a minor district with a land area of 145,751 rai (233.20 square km). Most of the residents are farmers and factory workers. There are only three entertainment venues.
On September 8, 2007, the Interior Ministry announced that in celebration of HM the King’s 80th birthday on December 5 this year, 81 minor districts in Thailand, including Koh Chan, were upgraded to full-fledged amphurs (districts).
Chaowarith, who has become a champion of the Sufficient Economy Theory, says he is keen to put the theory’s principles into practice at Koh Chan.