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Long-delayed Thappraya road construction angers residents and business operators
City assures that the over-budget road work will be complete by April
The 2nd portion of Jomtien 2nd
Road seems a long way from complete.
Phasakorn Channgam
Construction on the Thappraya Road leading from Pattaya to Jomtien
Beach and extending into Jomtien Second Road will be complete by April,
Pattaya officials say, bringing an end to a long-delayed project that
continues to incite bitter complaints from residents and motorists.
The project stretches from Bali Hai Pier along Thappraya Road turning left
at the Macchanu circle into the new Jomtien 2nd Road and on to Sukhumvit
Road opposite the Four Regions Floating Market.
Officials announced that the construction “is now 70 percent complete”, but
businesses and residents affected by the dust and diggings are skeptical
about the claim.
Said one businesses operator along the pot-holed, muddy and dusty road,
“This has become a mother of all jokes. We have been suffering in these
conditions for the past 4 years. Our business has dropped to almost nothing.
Customers don’t bother to stop and risk breaking their limbs just to come
and dine and shop in our establishments. City Hall should be ashamed of
themselves. The high season has come and almost gone. We have lost the best
period of our incomes.”
Another resident commented, “The stretch of Thappraya Road that runs for a
couple of kilometres from the Third Road overpass to the beach on Jomtien
has seen a road widening scheme that has been going on seemingly forever and
for a period appeared to be abandoned. We have seen the traffic lights at
Thepprasit junction immobilised for months by design and only recently
re-introduced.
During this period we have witnessed countless accidents and several
fatalities at the Thepprasit junction area alone.”
He continued to say, “Almost every tourist visiting Pattaya will take a trip
along this road at some point to visit Jomtien Beach and of course tourists
on Jomtien Beach will do the reverse. What kind of impression will they get
as they bounce around in the back of a baht bus that is trying its best to
avoid potholes and roadwork obstacles only to arrive at an endless traffic
build up at Thepprasit? I would say it could be the, “I’m not coming back”,
impression.”
Begun in 2005 with a budget of 488 million baht, the project has faced
continual delays and cost over-runs due to property owners refusing to turn
over land as ordered by the government until they received more
compensation. Currently 28 plots with 17 owners remain in contention and the
price tag has jumped to 1.1 billion baht.
Pattaya Deputy Mayor Ronakit Ekasingh remains confident, saying “the
problems will be worked out and the entire project completed by April.”
Ronakit acknowledged that the drawn-out construction has been a source of
traffic congestion, pollution and complaints for too long. He said that
besides property disputes the project was delayed by digging problems,
laying of water pipes in some areas and the failure of the Provincial
Electrical Authority to relocate high-voltage lines from the Pratamnak Hill
Junction to the Hanuman Circle.
“Pattaya City receives regular complaints about these issues from residents
and drivers on Thappraya Road,” he said. “They consist of problems with
dust, traffic jams, and the delay of project operations. However, Pattaya
City once again is asking the public to forgive us for this inconvenience.”
Sounding very convincing, Ronakit said “At the end of February residents
should see road-surface work from the Bali Hai bridge to Rompho Market
around the back of the Macchanu circle completed. The 2nd road running
parallel to Jomtien Beach Road between the market and Sukhumvit Road will be
done by April 2010.”
The map shows the two phases
of constuction in progress.
Ford-Mazda factory union holdouts fight on for higher wages
Union members rallied outside
the AutoAlliance
Thailand assembly plant in Rayong Jan. 5.
Theerarak Suthatiwong
About a third of the permanent employees at the AutoAlliance
Thailand assembly plant in Rayong vowed to hold out against new salary and
bonus terms even though most Ford and Mazda factory workers returned to work
after a company lockout.
About 900 of the plant’s 2,200 full-time employees rallied outside the
factory Jan. 5, continuing to demand higher wages and fatter bonuses. The
protest came as the plant reopened and 1,600 permanent workers returned to
the assembly line amid company claims of sabotage by unionists.
AAT said in a statement that it believes the sabotage was the work of a
small minority of disgruntled workers, one of whom has already been charged
by Rayong police. The lockout, the company said, was to protect its assets.
It also served as a deadline for workers to accept a new employment contact
or face cuts to their salaries and bonuses.
AAT labor union Somsak Yodsuk strongly denied any sabotage by his members,
although he acknowledged some plant equipment had been damaged by others.
The plant employs 3,400 people in total, although 1,200 are subcontractors
not involved in the wage dispute.
AAT and the Ford-Mazda Thailand Union began contract talks in November with
the company offering a 4.5 percent wage increase, 100 baht “special payment”
and bonuses totaling four months wage plus 10,000 baht.
The union is demanding a 5.5 percent pay raise, 4.6 months of bonus plus
20,000 baht per employee on top.
Company officials claimed their offer was competitive given the global
automotive industry’s troubled times and the fact the plant only produced
120,000 vehicles last year, the least in six years.
Yodsuk countered that the Ford-Mazda unit had been more successful than
other factories, that the company actually expanded its business in 2009 and
had invested 17 billion baht into development of a new car model. He said
AAT generates up to 70 billion baht each year and that the union was asking
for only a “pittance” of 233 million baht.
The union is also upset with a hiring freeze imposed this year and the
dismissal of labor grievances filed earlier. He said the Labor Ministry was
scheduled to intervene in the dispute to try and mediate an agreement.
The union acknowledged that some workers had already accepted the new
contract under threat of wage cuts and bonus suspensions, but brushed off
that group as a small minority of back-office workers. The rest of the union
members would still rally and sign a petition to fight on for higher wages.
Major Chonburi political powers
push to elect another family member
Chakkrawan Tangprakob (right)
meets people
he hopes will elect him mayor of Ban Suan.
Theerarak Suthatiwong
The son of a former mayor Ban Suan will vie to become the latest of the
Kunplome political family to win office, this time under the mantra of “dare
to speak, know how to act and dare to act.”
Chakkrawan Tangprakob, whose father, Wattana “Kamnan Nong” Tangprakob,
headed the Ban Suan Municipality from 2001 to 2004, presented his electoral
team and strategy at a press conference Jan. 5. Hoping to make Ban Suan a
“happy town,” the candidate will run for mayor under the Ban Suan Group
political party.
Chakkrawan is being supported by a strong local political family, including
former Tourism and Sports Minister Sonthaya Kunplome, Chonburi Provincial
Administrative Organization head Witthaya Kunplome and Witsanu Palayanon,
president of the Pattaya Strategic Council.
The politicians spoke about the need to pay attention to the people of Ban
Suan, particularly the elderly and to make the area safe from narcotics,
“economically creative,” and to promote technological development.
Chakkrawan’s political roots go deep. His mother is Somnuan Kunplome, the
head of Hauy Kapi Sub-district since 2002 and his older brother is Amarin
Tangprakob, a Chonburi MP from 2005 to 2006.
He served on the Huay Kapi Social Development and Human Stability
Commission, mayor of the municipality from 2007 to 2009 and as deputy mayor
Ban Suan in 2009.
The date of the elections has not yet been announced.
Navy, 1,000 Sattahip residents start 2010 on auspicious note
Residents and navy officials
make merit on New Year’s Day.
Patcharapol Panrak
More than 1,000 Royal Thai Navy personnel, Sattahip officials and
residents got 2010 off to an auspicious start by giving alms to 53 Buddhist
monks for good luck in the Thai year 2553.
Rear Adm. Theerawat Srithaporn, commander of the Sattahip Naval Base, and
Sattahip District Chief Chaichan Iamcharoen led the merit-making activity in
which food and breakfast was given to the monks and believers meditated,
prayed, listened to Dharma and honored well-known Buddhist instructor Luang
Poo Lee for good luck.
The event was capped with a speech from Thailand’s Supreme Patriarch Somdech
Phra Yanasangworn.
“World peace comes from compassion,” the 96-year-old Buddhist leader told
the gathering. For the New Year, he said, people should take stock of their
own mistakes then be calm and less emotional and use reason to spread peace.
“The reality that should be accepted and amended is that world peace comes
from mercy, and an uncomforted world is due to less compassion,” he said.
“Having compassion will create several results, and there will be gratitude
for both the giver and receiver.”
Transportation minister calls for marine safety upgrade
Transportation Minister Sophon Saram
and his group visit Bali Hai Pier in South Pattaya.
Ariyawat Nuamsawat
In the wake of two speedboat accidents that left two tourists
dead and dozens hurt, Transportation Minister Sophon Saram inspected
Pattaya’s marine infrastructure and called for upgraded safety patrols.
During a Jan. 8 tour of Bali Hai Pier, Sophon said a GPS-enabled mooring
zone for patrol operations needs to be established immediately to
protect the area’s many tourists. He said there should also be regular
training for both sea- and land-safety plans. Doing so, he said, will
instill more trust among visitors and make 2010 a year of safe
transportation.
Two Chinese tourists were killed and dozens injured in early December
when two overcrowded speedboats with insufficient numbers of life
jackets and expired licenses collided off the pier. Despite promises of
a crackdown on safety and operators, an illegally modified boat capsized
just three weeks later, injuring 14 more visitors.
The minister also examined traffic-control operations as well as tour
industrial and logistics zones in Laem Chabang and Chonburi.
Origami, education highlighted at hemophiliac Children’s Day event
Patcharapol Panrak
Children with hemophilia learned how to do origami and their
parents learned how to better deal with their youngsters’ conditions at
a Children’s Day activity in Chonburi.
 Nurse
Jatuporn Kaewsuk poses with a young hemophiliac.
The Eastern Hemophilia Patients Club and Chonburi Hospital’s Friendship
Treatment Center and Health Insurance Center organized the Jan. 9 event
in front of Chonburi City Hall. Kids were taught paper folding,
stationary and toys were distributed and fruit and ice cream served.
Nurse Jatuporn Kaewsuk said the event was intended to have the children
perform good deeds in honor of HM the King by creating paper rabbits and
sailor hats as origami is said to be a favorite of His Majesty. The
origami will be distributed to sick children hospitalized in Chonburi.
The activity also encouraged kids to be loyal, give praise, revere the
monarchy and show them constructive things to do with their free time,
she said.
Staff and volunteers also gave advice and imparted knowledge about
hemophilia to parents and teachers.
Navy fun day rewards families with food
Contestants use chopsticks to
pickup and carry a tangerine through a relay race.
Patcharapol Panrak
Fun Day kicked off at the Royal Thai Navy’s Recruit Training Center
in Bang Saray with conscripts exercising for good health and families being
enticed to cheer on their loved ones with gifts of rice and dried foods.
Following this year’s theme was “money can’t buy good health,” Navy
personnel were encouraged to make themselves healthy - and thus reduce
military health expenses - through exercise.
Navy officials also stressed that the activity helped build teamwork and
friendship among the conscripts.
Family members were encouraged to participate with their enlisted family
members and received rice, dried goods and cooking oil as rewards.
Amongst the fun day events were a chopstick/tangerine relay, a fill the
bucket with water one spoon at a time relay, and a soccer match.
Chonburi’s New Year
highway accidents fall 30%, but deaths remain high
Boonlua Chatree
Chonburi’s highway-accident rate over the New Year holiday improved
nearly five times more than the national average, although the nine
fatalities recorded in the province nearly matched the most killed in any
one area.
During the high-risk travel days from Dec. 29-Jan. 3, Chonburi saw 66
accidents in which 6 men and 3 women were killed, and 47 men and 18 women
injured. That placed Chonburi only slightly behind Chiang Mai and
Chantaburi, which led all provinces with 11 deaths each.
 Governor
Senee Jittakasem and Chonburi officials announced the number of traffic
fatalities this year during the New Year holiday was still too high.
But the totals marked a 29.8 percent decline in accidents over a year ago,
far bettering the 6.5 percent year-on-year drop nationwide. Overall, 309
deaths and 3,563 injuries were reported.
At a Jan. 3 press conference, Chonburi Governor Senee Jittakasem attributed
the improvement to the establishment of 31 road checkpoints staffed by more
than 1,000 police officers.
Most deaths and injuries were caused by drunk driving and not wearing
helmets, as well as speeding, poor driving and falling asleep behind the
wheel. As usual, motorbikes were most often involved in accidents.
Banglamung District, which encompasses Pattaya, recorded the most accidents
in the province with 20. Chonburi came in second with 16, followed by
Sriracha with five.
Fine-exacting police hit the jackpot over New Year’s as they wrote 7,491
tickets over the six holiday days. Among the offenses, 2,577 were fined for
not wearing helmets, 2,347 for driving without licenses, 819 for not wearing
seatbelts and 195 for talking on mobile phones while driving.
Overall statistics on road accidents during the high-risk New Year holiday
will be analyzed and reviewed in order to set up a plan for April’s Songkran
holiday, the nation’s bloodiest week on the highways with more than 500
people killed every year.
13-year-old Rayong girl raped by 7 male classmates
Police round up the school
boys to detain
and question them for allegedly raping a classmate.
Theerarak Suthatiwong
Seven secondary school boys have been arrested for allegedly raping a
13-year-old classmate in Rayong.
The seven lads from Paetrasukharom School were brought back to a concrete
water tank in Pae Sub-district where they re-enacted the Jan. 6 attack on
the girl. Allegedly, two of the boys raped the girl while the five others
kept watch and restrained her.
The victim said she’d been riding a motorbike to see her friend when she
stopped to chat with a 13-year-old boy she knew. The lad allegedly tricked
her into going back to the school with him where they met up with the other
teens, who were smoking at the water tank. When the girl refused to sit with
them, she said they attacked her.
Naked Russians receive no love from Pattaya police
Boonlua Chatree
Apparently word still hasn’t gotten out in Moscow that public sex in
Thailand isn’t legal, as four more Russians were arrested and fined for
public indecency.
 The
two couples quickly dressed before being taken in and fined.
Police were called to the beach in front of Welcome Jomtien Beach hotel
shortly before dawn Jan. 3 upon reports that two couples were involved in
bedroom antics by the sea.
Officers arrived to find the sand strewn with white and red roses, underwear
and other clothing. After about 30 minutes the officers finally found the
two couples and got them back inside their clothes.
Sergey Kirtaev, 34, Sasha Shevetscv, 30, Valeria Maighekar, 27 and Sahna
Cvetcovo, 25, were each taken to the Dongtan Police Station and fined 500
baht, becoming the third Russian group in the past six months to be dressed
down by the local police.
Police hunt loan sharks who
shot up late-payer’s home
Boonlua Chatree
Chonburi police are searching for two alleged loan sharks who used a
9mm pistol and a shotgun to shoot at the house and car of a late-paying
client.
 Police
display mug shots of the two suspects.
More than 50 Chonburi and Banglamung police officers stormed houses in
Nernplabwan Plaza Village and Rawiporn Golden Hill Village on Soi Khao Talo
January 6 with arrest warrants for Tanaphum “Kaek” Lianglek, 26, and
Ruangsak Sukpree, 32. Both had learned of the raid and fled, leaving only
their family to receive warnings from police to get the two men to turn
themselves in.
They are believed responsible for an assault earlier in the day on the home
of Nopawan Buacharoen, who told police she’d borrowed 20,000 baht from
Tanaphum but soon had trouble making the 60 percent interest payments. Two
weeks ago men collecting on the loan shark’s behalf had ransacked her home,
she said, but after she’d filed a police complaint the trouble had stopped.
That was until that morning when armed assailants blasted out her windows
and filled her truck with bullets. Police found at least ten 9mm casings and
numerous 12-gauge shotgun shells on her Soi Mabyailia 24 property.
Buddhist-Muslim antipathy believed
behind knife attack on Bang Saray boatman
Sai is brought in for
treatment
at Queen Sirikit Hospital after he was attacked by boatmen.
Patcharapol Panrak
A Buddhist Cambodian boatman lost his ear and sustained cuts to his
head, face and arms after what witnesses believe was a religiously motivated
attack by Islamic Khmer boatmen.
Bystanders at the Bang Saray Fishing Pier said 30-year-old “Sai” was
drinking alone when he was approached by four Cambodians after midnight Jan.
3. The four Muslims then attacked the Buddhist man with knives, cutting off
his ear and slashing his head, face and arms.
Sawang Rojana Thamasathan Foundation medics treated the man for severe
bleeding and took him to Queen Sirikit Hospital where he received about 50
stitches.
Sai was initially unable to give police a statement and the attackers were
said to have fled the scene.
German apparently drinks
himself to death
Bachor’s room was filled with
hundreds of empty bottles of whisky.
Boonlua Chatree
A 44-year-old German man apparently drank himself to death inside
his Soi Honey Inn apartment filled with more than 100 empty whiskey bottles.
Dietmar Horst Bachor was found lying on the floor of his guesthouse room
next to a bottle of Blend 285 whiskey and various mixers. Nearby police
found the boxes of empty bottles.
Bachor’s long-time partner Thongsri Kokrum told police her boyfriend drank
hard and played hard, mixing his drinks with dalliances. He drank up to
three bottles of whiskey a day, she said.
Thongsri, 43, told investigators she was not at home when Bachor died.
Police found no signs of violence in the room and assume he died of causes
related to his drinking or a heart condition, but sent the body for an
autopsy.
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