Phuket Public Health Office Director Sak Tanchaikul reported on short-term solutions to the hospital’s growing flood problem, which caused a shutdown and partial evacuation of the inpatient ward starting with the heavy rains that hit the province on August 25. During that deluge, flood waters destroyed important equipment, especially in the hospital’s main power control room, which is located in the basement.

15 million Baht will be allocated for this project. It calculated the hospital should still be able to operate even if the surrounding area is flooded. In the long-term, Patong Hospital hopes to completely reconstruct the power supply control room in a way that would raise important electrical components above the water line.

“However, this is a long-term project and we would need a large budget to fund it,” Director Sak added.

Also included in the short-term measures are the construction of a pedestrian footbridge to allow access during periods of flooding and the installation of new pumps to help keep the basement and other low-lying areas dry, he added. Workers will have to complete the project quickly if they hope to prevent a repeat of the August flooding, as September and October are statistically will have repetitious hard rain season in Phuket.

Patong Hospital was spared inundation in the 2004 tsunami disaster, but largely unregulated hillside construction in Patong has worsened the flooding situation along the new Phang Muang Sai Kor Road and other nearby areas. In addition, drainage projects successfully put in place to prevent flooding along a stretch of Nanai Road appear to have caused more water to collect in low-lying areas further down the slope.

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Demand from foreign buyers was little bit increase since local customer was absent. More foreign workers in Hong Kong and Singapore were return to Thai market due to Asia economic stays strong. Erawana market research shows sales in the first half of this year were 25% up year-on-year. The company wished for 5,4 billion baht sales this year rather than 4 billion baht record last year. Mr Piya, , a former Bangkok Bank executive, said Phuket market will remain for next 12-18 months but still lower than the peak of 2006 when sales were up 10 billion baht.

However it shook by 29 failed projects of the total of 168 projects due to it disturbed consumer confident who paid substantial down payment. They are unable to get refund on their villas and condos. Further it will influence the total recovery of Europeans on their financial crisis. Mr Piya said his company would launch 15 villas at Tanode 3 in the Laguna area worth 300 million baht by the end of this month. Erawana launched the five-villa Peykaa worth one million baht each earlier this year. Currently it has 20% in sales from both projects and expects to have 150-200 million baht in sales per year. Established in 2005, the company has developed 11 residential projects worth close to 1.5 billion baht in Phuket comprising more than 120 villas with prices in the range of 15-20 million baht apiece.

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The company has selected seven LRT routes for Phuket, with priority being given to the route from Phuket International Airport to Chalong Circle, budgeted at around B10 billion.

“We would also like to look at doing a new route from Patong to Phuket Town,” Mr Lee said. “We’ve been thinking about a combination of LRT above ground and underground for high-density areas such as Patong.”

Gov Tri told The Phuket News after the meeting that Dohwa claims it already has firm funding commitments to cover the B10 billion required for the priority route, so that Phuket would not have to come up with the money. So far, Dohwa seem to be the most serious company that expressed an interest in building the Phuket LRT system.

Dohwa has invited the governor and other official to visit LRT projects the company has completed in other countries. The Phuket government is expected to call for bids next month. Ten companies have expressed interest.

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Now 95 per cent complete, when finished the bridge will be 650 metres long, 12 metres wide and will have two lanes for outbound traffic from Phuket. This construction has began in 2009 and has so far cost an estimated B370 million.

The Thepkrasattree Bridge, which is currently being used for inbound and outbound traffic, will be turned into a dedicated two-lane bridge for incoming traffic. The new bridge will have the same height with Thepkrasattree Bridge, around 15 meters. It will allow larger ships to pass under it.

The existing Sarasin Bridge was derelict and at 52 years old, needed major upgrading. It will now become a tourist attraction, with a section of it being made higher and turned into a footbridge with a viewing platform.

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There is some last-minute changes in work plant, as been stated by Arund Sanae, director of the Provincial Highways Office in Phuket. The new span would probably open to off-islan traffic around mid-June.  The final work by project contractor Italian-Thai Development involved the final surfacing of the road and the painting of lane markers, he said.

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Throughout the construction phase, this bridge known as “Sarasin Bridge 2” and when it finished, the bridge will officially named Srisoonthorn Bridge.

“The new bridge is about 94 per cent complete and the construction contract ends on June 20,” Arun Sanae, director of the PPHO said.

“After that, Italian-Thai Development Construction Company will transfer the bridge to us,” he said.

Once open, the new bridge will be used by traffic heading northbound off the island. Southbound traffic heading onto the island will use the existing two-lane bridge, Mr Arun said.

In the meantime, the contractors will continue to complete small details such as the marking of lanes, he added.

Temporary signs notifying drivers of the coming change will be erected near the bridges soon.

“The official opening will occur toward the end of the year. After the ceremony, the bridge will be known as Srisoonthorn Bridge, a name provided to us by the Royal Family at our request,” Mr Arun said.

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The full-service carrier will offer twice-weekly flights, Tuesday and Fridays, from Melbourne to Phuket starting from February 22, 2011.

The move follows Virgin Australia’s decision to end its Phuket service.

Strategic’s service will be operated by an Airbus A330 aircraft offering both business and economy classes.

“We believe there is a strong traffic base between Victoria and Thailand and we look forward to working with partners in tourism and industry to build our services over time,” Strategic Airlines’ commercial head Damien Vasta said.

The carrier has also announced a twice-weekly service to Phuket from Brisbane – on Thursday and Sundays – starting from February 24, 2011.

“We are thrilled to add Thailand to our network complementing our new twice-weekly Brisbane to Townsville and Bali services starting next month,” he added

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Some 200 people live in the affected area, built along a 200-meter dirt road beside an important drainage canal. The damage extend and threatening the seawall that had protected around 50 houses from flood.

Mr Adun, who moved to Phuket eight years ago from his native Nakhon Sri Thammarat, said municipal officials had visited the community and seen with their own eyes what high tide does to their homes.

“They said they would discuss the matter with relevant officials, but we still haven’t had any word as to when the seawall would actually be repaired,” he said.

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Ershisanye was founded in 1953 and engaged in construction engineering, mining development and operation, real estate and related industries. The firm is part of China Minmetals group and last month ranked 332 on the 500 Fortune list. This company annual revenues is just under US$25 billion.

Mr Soo was escorted by other representatives of the firm and Phuket MP Raywat Areerob.

“The traffic problem in Phuket needs to be solved. I have presented the issue to many overseas investors and this is one firm that has expressed interest in building a light railway project on the island,” Mr Raywat said.

Gov Wichai presented Mr Soo with a copy of a government-commission research study entitled Feasibility Study of Light Rail Transit for Phuket and Phuket Airport Rail Link.

According to MP Raywat, Ershisanye was prepared to cooperate in a joint invest with the government for project and yesterday’s meeting was the preliminary only. In the other hand, Gov Wichai thanked both MP Raywat and his guest for taking the time to visit.

If the project proceeds further to a real establishment, this light rail system would go a long way for this kind of transportation system that is needed by Phuket especially for the submission of World Expo 2020 host, he said.

Mr Soo said Phuket’s reputation as a famous tourist destination urge the area to have a better transport system affected varied companies have interest toward this area.

“We’ll study this project and come back with a proposal as soon as possible. I think it will take about a month,” he said.

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Flight low demand for Thai AirAsia in Ho Chi Minh City and Medan force this airways company temporarily suspended the flight from Phuket to those two cities. Still, the carrier remains committed to growing Phuket as its second air hub in the Kingdom.

The two services began at the end of last year with daily flights to Ho Chi Minh City and three flights weekly to Medan, Indonesia.

The Ho Chi Minh service ended on May 15 and the Medan service on April 30.

Thai AirAsia CEO Tassapol Bijleveld says, the aircraft used on the routes will now be used to increase direct flights frequency on Phuket to Chiang Mai, and Phuket to Udon Thani routes.

Starting June 1, Phuket to Udon Thani route will begin its daily flights and route increase for Phuket to Chiang Mai into two flights a day.

Domestic flights escalation will help boost the economy and encourage domestic tourism spending, Mr Tassapol said.

Mr Tassapol described the cancellation of the Ho Chi Minh and Medan services as ‘temporary,’ but did not specify when they would resume.

Thai Air Asia also plans to add new routes from its Phuket hub, including flights to India, in the near future.

By year’s end, all Thai AirAsia flights will be aboard new Airbus A320s.

By 2014, the budget carrier will have 40 new A320s in service, he said.

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