'Total' demolition of Aetas, says City Hall

'Total' demolition of Aetas, says City Hall

The contractor who will be selected to demolish the Aetas Hotel and Residence in Bangkok's Pathumwan district must knock down the entire structures, not just the high-level floors, said a senior official at City Hall.

Pathumwan district chief Pinit Arayasilapathorn said that both the 18-storey and 24-storey buildings on Soi Ruamrudee 2 must be demolished under the terms of a bid recently called by the district office.

He said the contractor, which has yet to be announced, will have 365 days to take down the two structures for violating the city's construction ordinance which requires the size and height of all buildings to correspond with the width of the road outside.

Aetas Hotel and Residence broke regulations under the Building Control Act of 1979, which states that buildings taller than eight storeys cannot be built on a road less than 10m wide. As a result, both structures will be demolished under the contract, according to Mr Pinit.

He added the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) has yet to announce the winner of the bid in which two companies participated last month. Both firms have made offers below the reference price set at 172 million baht and their proposals have been forwarded to the BMA's city clerk office for consideration, he added.

Last year, City Hall announced terms of reference on its website for hiring a contractor to demolish the buildings with an estimated cost of around 200 million baht. It took almost four years to enforce the demolition order, which included erecting signs announcing use of the building was prohibited pending demolition.

Mr Pinit said that after demolition is completed, the district office will sue the project owner and order them to pay for demolition costs. However, a source at City Hall said a fresh and potentially lengthy legal battle looms if the BMA proceeds with the demolition because the project owner has a document from the Pathumwan district office confirming that the width of the road is 10 metres.

When the case was first filed with the Administrative Court in 2008 by 24 residents, former Pathumwan district chief Surakiat Limcharoen and former Bangkok governor Apirak Kosayodhin were accused of negligence of duty in approving the project. The BMA was also accused of issuing a certificate exaggerating the width of the road to push the project through.

In February 2012, the Administrative Court ruled that the BMA wrongly allowed the buildings to be built. Two years later in December 2014, the Supreme Administrative Court ordered City Hall to knock down the two buildings for violating the city's construction ordinance.

Bangkok governor Aswin Kwanmuang had earlier announced that he would enforce the demolition order. Otherwise, he would be held accountable for negligence of duty and potentially slapped with a 10-billion-baht lawsuit.

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