“The central government granted Phuket City Municipality a budget of B517 million to solve flooding issues and to improve the drainage system in Phuket Town,” Thawee Homhoun, Chief of the Phuket Provincial Office of Public Works and Town & Country Planning, told The Phuket News today (July 27).
“We are in charge of this project and signed a contact on March 31 with the construction company Auang Sea Heang Co Ltd to complete the works needed,” he said.
“The construction company will start this project early in August, maybe as late as August 15, and the whole project will take about two and half years to complete,” Mr Thawee said.
“Once the projects starts, officials will need to reduce some of the roads where work is being carried out to one lane only,” he warned.
“We need this project to help dispose of high volumes of rainwater because our city lacks a quality drainage system. Many of the drains are too small to handle the load and many of them are not connected properly,” Mr Thawee explained.
“To resolve these problems, in addition to upgrading and fixing drains and reworking canals throughout the town, the project will see pumping stations installed along the canals to help pump excess water,” he said.
However, Mr Thawee noted that although the projects to be carried out have been identified, the plans for many of the works to be done have yet to be finalised.
“We have similar projects lined up for Patong for which we have already signed a contract with another company. This project will start in September,” Mr Thawee added.