BMA accepts Pratunam hawkers' proposed sites

BMA accepts Pratunam hawkers' proposed sites

Street vendors clog the footpaths in downtown Pratunam, Bangkok. They have until Aug 1 to move to new locations. (Bangkok Post file photo)
Street vendors clog the footpaths in downtown Pratunam, Bangkok. They have until Aug 1 to move to new locations. (Bangkok Post file photo)

City Hall has accepted in principle a Pratunam street vendors' proposal to move to four alternative sites, not the ones already allocated them.

Agreement was reached at a meeting between deputy city governor Pol Gen Assawin Kwanmuang and representatives of the Pratunam merchants on Tuesday. Their previous two meetings had ended without accord.

The BMA had earlier set aside five new locations to accommodate more than 600 traders ordered to move out of one of Bangkok’s major shopping districts by Aug 1. They were the Bangkapi market, the Tha Din Daeng Market, the Sirinda Night Plaza Market at the mouth of Soi Phetchaburi 29 and two privately owned blocks of land on Soi Phetchaburi 23 and Soi Hassadin in Ratchaprarop area.

Panusorn Butpakom, who represents the Pratunam vendors, said the traders did not want to relocate to the BMA-proposed venues. They were not commercial areas and retail space there was expensive. 

The vendors proposed four other locations in and around the Pratunam shopping area -- Makkasan Airport Rail Link Station, in front of the Palladium World Shopping Centre (formerly Pratunam Centre), in front of the Platinum shopping mall, and on a soi adjacent to the Indra Regent Hotel.

Pol Gen Assawin said Wanlop Suwandee, chief adviser to the Bangkok governor, would on Friday negotiate with the landlords of the proposed trading spots, to see if they would lease their space for the vendors. If they agreed to the request, the two sides could meet and talk about the rental rates.

Pol Gen Assawin said if the talks with the landlords failed, the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration  would suggest alternative locations to the vendors. He insisted that all Pratunam traders must pack up and leave by the Aug 1 deadline without further negotiation. 


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