More than 20 residents from Moo 1 on Koh Sirey arrived at the Damrongharm Centre at Phuket Provincial Hall on Monday (July13) to file a complaint about the project, being carried out by Rassada Municipality.
They claimed that the excavation of a busy road in their neighbourhood in order to install the pipes had made the road dangerously narrow. Also, the excavation was not marked with safety signs and warning lights.
“The area has a lot of traffic coming through it each day and Rassada Municipality told residents that they dug up road to lay the pipes in order to avoid installing the pipes on private land,” said local resident Wanida Nilmoj.
The residents on Monday called for officials to investigate the land title used to claim the land, which the Grand Supicha Group allegedly claims to own.
To confuse matters more, apparently the Grand Supicha Group had given Rassada Municipality permission to use the land to install the pipes – an invitation that was ignored by the municipality, which obviously chose to dig up the road to install the pipes instead.
Vice Governor Suthee Thongyam and Damrongharm Chief Praphan Khanphrasang received the complaint.
“At this stage we see no reason why the municipality had to install the pipes under the road, but we have yet to investigate this further,” said V/Gov Suthee.
In the meantime, the project manager has been ordered to mark the constructions site with warning signs and lights.