Pattaya’s billion baht CCTV slammed as officials admit more than half of them are not working

Pattaya authorities have admitted that more than half of the CCTV cameras in the city are not working.

The system was slammed by a crash victim who wanted evidence for an accident at the new Central Pattaya tunnel.

But like so many at the resort the camera was down and he was forced to appeal for witnesses.

Pattaya has spent a billion baht on 2,112 cameras since 2003, said Surasak Janthasomboon in charge of communications technology at City Hall.

But he admitted to Manager that only 47% of them are working.

The situation in areas of high tourism such as Beach Road and Sai 2 is barely any better than the city as a whole – Surasak said that out of 382 cameras only 219 or 57% were of any use.

He said that emergency measures were taking place to rectify problems and he hoped up to 80% would be workable by this week.

But this has come too late for the victim of the accident in which a motorcycle collided with a pick-up at the exit of the newly constructed tunnel heading towards South Pattaya last week.

Posts on a popular social media site questioned the money spent on CCTV in Pattaya and called for a ministerial level investigation.

Over the years there have been 31 separate projects in Pattaya to install CCTV.

Surasak gave several excuses to Manager about wiring and poor maintenance but the bottom line is that most of the cameras simply don’t work.

 

Source: Manager Online

 

Stay updated with Samui Times by following us on Facebook.