The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) has explained what has been achieved since the metropolitan administration took office under Governor Chadchart Sittipunt. The BMA also shed light on the measures announced during the governor’s campaign that have since been implemented.
BMA representative Ekwaranyu Amrapan said the Bangkok governor’s Facebook live stream has given a wide audience a sense of the quality of his work and the challenges he faces. Conflicts are often resolved immediately thanks to these online broadcasts, without the governor having to give additional orders to the administration’s services. Several priority measures have already been implemented in the first 30 days of the new municipal team’s tenure. Managing the city’s flooding problems is the first of these actions, for which 2,387 km of pipes have already been cleaned. The work is 70.4% of the target distance, with about two months left to complete the mission. The BMA therefore expects the operations to be completed according to the forecast schedule.
The second major action is road safety and crosswalks. Mr. Ekwaranyu said that traffic signals and warning lights will be installed at 80 crosswalks. The BMA is also working to quickly repaint discolored crosswalks. Other work related to this policy includes improving road surfaces and rehabilitating some of the degraded areas that had temporarily hosted construction. In addition, the BMA envisions the removal of unnecessary overhead cables in collaboration with the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society. A target has been set to remove 800 km of unused cables in the first year.
The third measure is to allocate locations for street vendors and temporary stalls in order to establish demarcated street vending areas. City Hall will also reduce rents by 50 percent in 12 markets managed by the BMA over the next three months. The interest rate for pawnshops managed by the BMA will also be reduced.
The fourth urgent measure is the development of Green Line rapid transit stations. The fees will be collected from August. The governor of Bangkok is in favor of disclosing the concession agreement so that the public can be accurately informed, the governor added that disclosure would also help determine the appropriate compensation rate for the service operator.
The spokesman added that the new governor of Bangkok is emphasizing greater transparency, communication and inspection of the work. The proposed 79 billion baht mayoral budget is currently under consideration by the Bangkok Council and is available for public viewing at official.bangkok.go.th.
Spokesman Ekwaranyu ajouted that the Traffy Fondue mobile application is a concrete example of the municipality’s actions to improve inter-agency collaboration, and that about 60,000 reports or complaints have already been submitted by the public.
