Both police stations are in temporary buildings until budget is allocated to build permanent structures – the budget has been approved in principle but has yet to be received.
Wichit Police Station is to be built on Chaofa West Rd near Wichitsongkram School, while the Karon Police Station will be close to Karon Stadium, at the south end of Karon Beach.
Pol Col Sanae Yawira, Deputy Provincial Police Commander, who is responsible for both projects, said that the budget is expected to come through from the government next year.
In the meantime, the Karon police will have to make do with an existing rather elegant (but small) police substation, while the Wichit police will use part of an existing police accommodation block.
Apart from the budget problem, Provincial Commander Maj Gen Choti Chavaviwat noted that Phuket also suffers from a chronic shortage of police officers.
The new police stations will be manned by taking officers from other parts of the island – from Phuket Twon to Wichit and from Chalong to Karon.
Gen Choti said, “There should be about 160 officers for each police station yet now we have only 60 per station. Every police station in Phuket is short of manpower.
“However, I believe that the new police stations will encourage police work.”
The commanders of the new police stations have been named. They are Pol Col Sirisak Wasasiri for Karon and Pol Col Chawalit Petchsripia for Wichit.