CHON BURI - A Pattaya councillor has asked the city's executive members to accelerate an inquiry into the four-year delay in the opening of a new pier in the beach city.
During a council meeting on Wednesday, Sinchai Wattanasartsathorn requested an accounting of the progress in the opening of the new mooring facility for boats at Laem Bali Hai.
Construction of the pier was completed in 2013, but it had still not been opened for use, he said.
The government had allocated about 735 million baht to Pattaya municipality to build a new parking area for cars and boats. Only the parking area had been opened. The mooring facility for boats had not, Mr Sinchai said.
It was a large and costly project, but four years on the pier remained unopened and unused.
Pattaya councillors and residents were told only that the opening of the pier was delayed by tropical storm Vamco, which hit Pattaya township in 2015, he told the meeting.
Mayor Anan Charoenchasri replied that construction of the mooring facility at Laem Bali Hai began in 2008 and it was completed in 2013. Before it was opened it was hit by the tropical storm, and the pounding waves had damaged the pier structure, said Pol Maj Gen Anan, who was appointed Pattaya mayor in February this year.
Tropical storm Vamco had caused structural damage, which required that the opening of the pier be further delayed, he said.
Chanatpong Sriwiset, then acting Pattaya mayor, had set up a committee to survey the damage. The panel also looked into whether it was caused solely by the storm or resulted from poor engineering and construction. The inquiry had still not been completed, said Pol Maj Gen Anan.
Repairs to the damaged section had to await the findings of the probe, the mayor said. He had ordered the panel to speed up its investigation.
Pattaya council chairman Anan Angkhanawisan said the construction of the pier was completed two years before it was hit by tropical storm Vamco. He wondered why it was not opened for use at the time.
He also asked the municipality to speed up the inquiry and give a clear explanation for the extensive delays.
Pisarn Rattanapranee, acting head of the city’s legal office, said the municipality had recently asked Kasetsart University, the navy and King Mongkut's Institute of Technology Ladkrabang to send experts to jointly investigate the damage to the pier.
Pattaya municipality mayor Anan Charoenchasri explains the delay in the opening of the new pier during the council meeting on Wednesday. (Photo by Chaiyot Pupattanapong)
The new, basically unused, pier at Laem Bali Hai in Pattaya, Chon Buri, which has still not be opened four years after it was built. (Photo by Chaiyot Pupattanapong)