Trying to solve the problems of Phuket International airport, a meeting held in Kata Beach Resort last Thursday. Complicated transportation subject is still haunted this public facility. The meeting is attended by public and private sector representatives from Krabi, Phuket and Phang Nga.

The important meeting led by Tuyaratt Achariyachai, Chairwoman of the Senate Standing Committee on Tourism, Pratuang Sornkham, Director of Phuket Airport and Chaturongkapon Sodmanee, Airports of Thailand Public Company Limited (AOT) executive vice president of engineering and information technology. Further the meeting discussed about the matters that shadowed the international airport such as taxi services, the number of immigration counters, car parking, restroom facilities and general safety issues.

Flying Officer (Flg Off) Chaturongkapon stated the international terminal wished to finish in 2014 while domestic terminal finished in the first start of 2015. The expansion expected to cost 5.791 billion baht to take care 12.5 million passengers per year. The addition of immigration counters is coming from AOT. “The passengers amount on arrival during September 2010 to October 2011 was around 8.2 million. It is about 20,000 passengers per day last year while this year it is increasing to 32,000 per day,” said her.

“The construction forced us to think how to avoid unnecessary delays for the tourists,” said her. Flg Off Chaturongkapon said, “We are planned to set more immigration counters while it increased to 60 from 42.” In the other side Methee Tanmanatragul, adviser from the Thai Hotels Association said airport taxi services are needed to change. He was giving his suggestion to imitate the system of Suvarnabhumi Airpoft for Phuket airport taxis line so each drivers should pay 50 baht to queue up their taxi.

Honorary Consul of the Czech Republic, Anurak Tansiriroj also said the problems of the taxi service are the expensive price while the taxi drivers are also often grabbed tourists to ride their taxi. Garun Panitpichetvong, Pheu Thai Party director said, “Parking lot allocation needs to solve. Now the parking lot is dominated with taxi vans, taxi cars and limousines.” Patong Mayor Pian’s was requesting for wider runways while Flg Off Chaturongkapon reminded if larger runways project would damage environment. The requests are also related with rubbish management as well shop management in the airport area. “All airport issues were discussed in the meeting for further development,” said Flg Off Chaturongkapon.

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Phuket celebrating the coming of holiday season by bringing two major annual fairs in Phuket Town. The town is also launching much checkpoints guarded by police officers throughout the country after the campaign of road safety “Seven Days of Danger”. Launching the opening of both events such as Phuket Red Cross Fair and Colorful Phuket Countdown 2012, Phuket Governor is being busy today.

Phuket Red Cross Fair takes place in Saphan Hin at 6 PM as it will display fireworks with following performances. Years ago it held charity raffle with grand prize, a Honda city car. Meanwhile Colorful Phuket Countdown 2012 will hold in Sanaam Chai in front of Phuket Provincial Hall. The opening is holding at 8 PM today (29/12). Colorful Phuket Countdown 2012 will perform mini-concerts from famous artists, a dance contest, a 20 meters exhibition tunnel with lights and decorations and others. Second countdown event will set up a clock to count down the seconds going to the last sunset of this year in Phromthep Cape, Rawai.

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The survey has reviewed 5,381 businesses, said Mr Suttipong. “Most of the businesses agree to increase the minimum wage into 300 baht including Phuket Chapter of the Federation of Thai Industries and the Phuket Chamber of Commerce,” said him. Last minimum wage was in 220 bath per day then it will be 300 baht per day on April 1 next year, said him. “Hotel owners would introduce the increase slowly. Qualified employees will get wage rise so the rise would be fair,” said him.

“From January to the end of November this year, there were up 42,000 people registered into the Labor Office for searching a job. From those amount, 33,763 persons were eliminated from the list due to they had already found a job,” said him. Though it described the unemployment condition as a constant state of flux, depending on the high season, Mr Suttipong stated unemployment rate has fallen in Phuket. “At first registered unemployed persons are 5,470 and now 4,679 employees had worked. About 4,722 employees matched their job during the same period,” said him. Wichin Dasantad, the labor’s representative said, “The minimum wage increase is not a big problem since Phuket economy is on growing step especially in tourism industry.” This news later expected to attract workers to solve the problem of labor shortage in the job market.

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Keynote speaker will be Martin Smesters, managing director of Pura Organics, speaking on producing and using organic food products in Thailand.

Pura Organics is a network sources for more than 40 organics suppliers and sources in Thailand. One of its dedicated sources is a farm on the borders of the Khao Sok National Park in Surat Thani, 150km north of Phuket.

“Pura Organic Foods buys the entire production of the farm to distribute these products to the resorts, hotels and restaurants in Southern Thailand, mainly Phuket. All these products are transported to Pura Organic Foods Ltd on Phuket two times a week during high season. Pura in turn sells these products and delivers these to the end consumers – resorts, hotels and restaurants in Phuket,” explained Mr Smesters.

Small farmer usually receive help from Pura Organic Foods Ltd as this company keep making effort to be organic despite the fact that they often often pressured by unfair trade practices. The Thai government is trying to stimulate the organic farming sector, but clarity is still a major issue.

“For instance, organic is often replaced with ‘Chemical free’. The term chemical free can’t even be compared to organic farming as it’s a kind of farming which is used all over the world and it refers to using chemicals from the time of seeding until a short period before harvest when the use of chemicals stops,” he said.

Mr Smesters’ one-hour presentation will be followed at 6pm by the regular Sundowners business and social networking session with drinks and snacks. Entry to the Sundowners is 400 baht for AustCham members and 600 baht for non-members. A trip is planned on Saturday to visit the organic farm in Khao Sok if enough people are interested.

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The British-assembled SUV was initially unveiled in the United Kingdom in July, before making its way to the Bangkok market last month. BRG Managing Director Chollatorn Sriratanaprapas aim to sell 10 vehicles in the first three months, and then to sell another 15 vehicles by next year. They will targeting customer group is a new-generation of business men and women, explained Ms Chollatorn.

The vehicle is not designed to look “too tough or strong”, typical of SUVs. It i a sleek sports vehicle built to maintain its functionality as a SUV. The vehicle will be maintaining this functionality with a smaller 2.2 liter diesel engine, which will put out 190 horsepower.

Ms Chollatorn explained that the Evoque is an ideal vehicle for the local market because Phuket has many varying terrains and driving conditions.

“This unique SUV can handle various road surface conditions and has immense torque, making it an enjoyable and safe vehicle to drive. Its below-surface systems are durable, and it has better road-grip than most other cars.

“Moreover, it features a strong frame structure and an excellent view of the road, adding to the overall safety factor,” she said.

The interior is done in a semi-sport design, wrapped almost entirely in Oxford leather that is hand-finished with twin-needle stitching and fit around its electronic and memory controls. It also features metal finishers and flush-fitting air vents with a tactile control system and 20 inch Alloy (Lor Mack) wheels.

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Phuket Election Committee (PEC) Director Kittipong Thiengkunagrit confirmed that the “dry zones” will be the electorates of Koh Kaew, Kamala, Cherng Talay, Thepkrasattri, Mai Khao and Sakoo.

In line with election law, the sale of alcoholic beverages within those electorates will be prohibited from 6pm tonight through to midnight Saturday. However, the alcohol ban is restricted to only those areas where elections will be held.

Popular tourist areas of Patong, Karon, Kata, Chalong and Rawai will be unaffected by the alcohol ban. Pa Khlok will also be unaffected.

Cherng Talay will remain divided. The sale of alcohol will be prohibited within the administrative area of Cherng Talay OrBorTor, but alcohol can be sold as usual within the confines of Cherng Talay Municipality.

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Nanyaroon Yadee, 50, of the Pa Khlok Tambon Administration Organization (OrBorTor) Public Works Division believes Phuket has much to gain through better water management.

“A public hearing was held recently by the Phuket Provincial Office as part of a project to draft a master plan for long-term solutions to water issues in Phuket. It was said that Phuket might need to lay water pipes to bring in water from Ratachaprapha reservoir (in Surat Thani Province) to solve the ongoing issue of water shortages,” he explained.

“It is a good idea to support everyone’s needs, but I think this idea ‘spoils’ the Phuket people. It’s not that I don’t agree with the plan – I agree with laying the pipes. However, authorities should also give support to the idea of local residents being more self-sufficient,” said Mr Nanyaroon.

Phuket is really dependence on its tourism resulted in water problems every year. We welcome people from different parts of the world who use our water. It should make the authorities to have responsibility providing enough tap water for these people and these new systems allow local residents to ignore the idea of being self-sufficient.

“Now they are waiting for tap water lines to pass their houses, despite having no problems with using groundwater in the past,” he said.

Mr Nanyaroon suggested that if the authorities were supporting the idea of local residents using groundwater, the number of people facing water shortages would be greatly reduced.

“This idea is not helpful for people living ‘in town’, who don’t have anywhere to dig a well, but it’s very useful for people living ‘out of town’, and 80 per cent of the area of Phuket is considered ‘out of town’,” he said.

The tin-mining lagoons dotted all over Phuket were sources that could easily be greater utilized, Mr Nanyaroon said.

“The surrounding areas should also have groundwater. I believe these areas have 10 times more water than is seen in the mining ponds,” he added.

“Some say they [the authorities] will not use the groundwater because it is ‘rusty water’. So why don’t the authorities use their resources to at least treat the water enough so that it can be used for laundry, baths, and washing dishes?” he asked.

“I have a seven-meter-deep well at my house in Kamala that has rusty water. I solved the problem by creating my own water filter.

“I used cement-drain pipes with four layers of filters: bricks, small stones, charcoal and sand. After passing through the filter the water is stored in three other containers made of cement pipes. This filtration method produces water clean enough to use in my house,” he explained.

“More than just being self-reliant, if an area can support multiple wells, it is possible to sell the water to neighbors or to hotels. If I can do this by myself, at my own home, I think government authorities should have even better ideas and technology to support methods of self-sufficiency like this,” he added.

Mr Nanyaroon urged all people of Phuket to consider such options that will help stave off future water shortages.

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“We held a meeting to discuss the possibility of PIA becoming the alternate main airport take over the Suvarnabhumi Airport if in case it unable to operate,” said an AoT Phuket spokesperson yesterday.

“We are now happy to announce that PIA is ready to be used as the EOC,” she said.

Although Phuket has already entered its tourism high season and the airport is bustling with air traffic, the spokesperson said Phuket Airport was prepared to take on the role.

Staff at the airport will prepare special areas in case of a further increase in air traffic, though they will only be able to handle additional flights at specific hours.

“The PIA can open up one spot for a Boeing 744-400 and a couple spots for Airbus 300 aircraft from midnight to 8am. A couple more spots will be available for Airbus 300 aircraft from 8am to noon,” the spokesperson said.

Somachai Sawasdeepon, AoT Senior Executive Vice President and Acting General Manager of Suvarnabhumi Airport, considers the move as precautionary only.

“Suvarnabhumi Airport is protected by a flood prevention system, which has 3.5-meter-high polder dykes surrounding the whole airport area. The dykes are very strong and capable ofpreventing floodwaters from reaching the airport. Test concerning the dykes also had been conducted as it keeps strong as long as the water level lower than 3.5 meters,” said Mr Somchai.

Mr Somchai also confirmed that the airport was operating as usual, still averaging about 100,000 passengers and 900 flights per day.

The PIA has confirmed that all flights between PIA and Suvarnabhumi Airport are still operating as scheduled.

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China’s two teams who today qualified for the women’s main draw are Huang/Yue and Ma/Zhang. The winning teams from Japan are Nishibori/Urata and Mizoe/Tanaka. The additional four teams include sisters Emilia and Erika Nystrom of Finland, Italy’s Giombini/Orsi Toth, Latvia’s Jursone/Minusa, and Netherland’s Mooren/van der Vlist.

Playing in their first tournament together, Ma/Zhang defeated two Canadian teams to advance to the main draw.

“We were so nervous when we first started playing today it was very hard to work together,” said Zhang.

Another surprise package is Italy’s 14th-seeded Laura Giombini/Viktoria Orsi Toth, who advanced with a brace of wins over teams from Canada and Georgia. The Italians are the lowest-seeded team to qualify for the main draw.

As host nation,Thailand’s three teams have all been seeded into the main draw.

The Thai pairings are Kamoltip Kulna/Varapatsorn Radarong, Jarunee Sannok/Usa Tenpaksee and Tanarattha Udomchavee/Rumpaipruet Numwong.

A total of 53 teams from 26 countries are competing in the Phuket tourney, including Australia (3 teams), Austria (1), Belgium (1), Brazil (3), Canada (4), China (3), Czech Republic (2), Finland (1), France (1), Georgia (1), Germany (2), Great Britain (2), Greece (1), Italy (3), Japan (3), Kazakhstan (4), Latvia (1), Malaysia (2), Mexico (1), Netherlands (3), Russia (1), Slovak Republic (1), Spain (2), Thailand (3), Ukraine (1), and United States (3).

The Phuket Gazette is a charter sponsor of the 2011 Swatch World Tour Phuket, Thailand Open powered by PTT.

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The delay in opening stems from complaint after complaint being filed over traffic safety due to buses entering and leaving the terminal, and problems in having a government authority managing the site once the terminal opens.

The latest move to call in the governor appears to be a last ditch effort to stop work in front of a house belonging to Rassada Mayor Suratin Lianudom, where the Highways Office wants to “break” the median strip and install traffic lights so buses can enter and leave the terminal safely.

Alternative locations previously suggested where buses using the terminal could make U-turns have been deemed either unsafe or unwanted by local residents.

Contractors hired under government contract to do the work failed to even start this month. Workmen arrived at the site on October 22 only to be “ordered” to stop work by Mayor Suratin.

This latest confrontation was raised at the next meeting of the Provincial Land Transportation Committee, which includes officials from the Phuket Highways Office and the Phuket Land Transportation Office, on October 27.

At the meeting, Phuket Highways Office Deputy General Manager Sathaporn Sornchana related the tale of intervention by Mayor Suratin, adding that it was no surprise. There is also Phuket Land Transportation Office Chief Terayout Prasertphol who clearly voiced his understanding of the situation at the meeting.

“The road and traffic island [in question] are under the authority of the Phuket Highways Office and what we are doing is for public use, so the [project] committee agrees for them to continue working,” he said.

However, the next day, October 28, Mr Sathaporn received notice from the Damrongtham Center (provincial ombudsman’s office) that a complaint had been filed by the “Rassada people” and that no work could commence until Governor Tri had reviewed the case.

If Mr Sathaporn’s estimation is accurate that the work on “breaking the island” will take 45 days, then Gov Tri has until December 12 to approve the work – or else the government will be held accountable for failing to uphold its terms of the 3-million-baht contract.

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