The photos, posted online by Phuket Town resident Thawat Chaisalee, showed large tracts of ugly and dangerous sections of unsurfaced road along the sides of Rassada Rd and Phang Nga Rd.
“Let pictures tell the story. I just wanted to show how the Phuket Government does its work,” Mr Thawat told The Phuket News.
“This has been annoying for a long time. They dug up the road in front of my house, then they just left it incomplete for a long time.
“I asked Phuket City Municipality about it, but no one gave an answer. So I thought that I had to use pictures like this to get them to take action.
“I want everyone to see the pictures, and I hope this can make a change for the better for tourists and the good image of Phuket.” Mr Thawat said.
Somruay Raksakul, Head of Construction Control under the Engineering Division at Phuket City Municipality, explained to The Phuket News that the unfinished and slipshod roads were the result of delays in burying the communications cables underground.
“I know about this problem, and Mr Tawee is working on it,” he said.
“Currently, Phuket City Municipality has a budget of B166 million from the Phuket office of the Public Works and Town Planning and Country Planning Department (DPT-Phuket) to install the power and communications cables along Rassada Rd and Phang Nga Rd underground.
“Worker must do this two parts. First, they must install the power cables underground, which has been done, but they have encountered problems with the communications cables,” he said.
“We need to change the pipe that will contain the communications cables. After that new footpaths will be made along Rassada Rd and Phang Nga Rd, the footpaths will be the same as already made along Thalang Rd,” Mr Somruay said.
DPT-Phuket Chief Tawee Homhuan told The Phuket News yesterday that the problem related to the ongoing project to install power lines and communications cables underground throughout the Old Town area.
“I already know about the suffering of the local people, and I saw the pictures posted on Facebook,” Mr Tawee said.
“First, staff will make temporary repairs to the roads at night on Apr 5-6,” he said yesterday.
“Next I will present to Phuket Governor Phakaphong Tavipatan a new plan to install the communications cables along these roads and also to make new footpaths and repair these roads properly,” Mr Tawee added.
However, the plan will not be presented to the Governor until after the Songkran holidays, he noted.
“And the repairs will take about four months,” Mr Twaee added.