Hanging wires: beautification of Samui begins

Work has begun in earnest to bury the unsightly wires and cables that blight tourist spots on the holiday island of Koh Samui.

Workers from the Electrical Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) working in conjunction with ten other cable companies have started on the work in the Chaweng beach road area of the island, reported Thairath.

They hope to eventually bury some 3.1 kilometers of wires in the area at a cost of 380 million baht. The Chaweng work should be completed by the end of 2018 with some 1.3 kilometers of work to also be done in other areas of Samui.

Chaweng was given the priority because it is a high profile tourist area.

The start of work follows a lot of comment recently about the problem of ugly and possibly dangerous electrical wires and cables hanging from EGAT posts. The issue even came to the attention of Bill Gates who commented online about the issue facing Thailand and other countries.

The work has actually been in the pipeline for three years but has been hurried along recently after senior government figures got involved.

Panumat Limsuwan of EGAT said that the work is a joint operation of the electrical authority and ten other companies. The first stage, he said, is to cut out wires and cables that are no longer being used then to bundle up those that are used in a neat way.

Authorities are currently offering the work of burying the wires and cables out to tender.

Thai Visa / Thairath

 

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