He will use some of the budget to extend the checkpoint from four to eight lanes.
Gov Chockchai Detjamornthan announced his proposal at his first “Governor Meets Press” meeting held last Thursday (Oct 13) at Provincial Hall and stated that he is sure the government will approve the budget and that Phuket will have new face recognition technology in place to help support the island’s security.
“I talked with officials last week about security improvements for the island and we agreed to utilize the OSM Andaman (Andaman provinces group) for a project to improve Tha Chatchai checkpoint which is our city gate.
“We will install face recognition technology to scan drivers of vehicles entering or leaving via the checkpoint. This is a project which former governor Chamroen Tipayapongtada studied.
“In addition, the project will include road expansion at the checkpoint from four to eight lanes. Provincial Police will set up additional police stations and provide more police officers to support this area,” Gov Chockchai said.
“The budget needed for this project is around B100 million or so which will come from OSM Andaman because the group has large amount of unused budget available due to many projects which have not come to development.
“Phuket is the leader of the OSM Andaman so we have to push for this project. I believe this project will help bring convenience to the public especially residents and tourists. Any investment like this in our province will also boost the island’s economy,” he added.