A proposal was made on November 17th to Phuket Vice Governor Niran Kalayanamitra and other local Government officers for a Monorail in Phuket. The idea is to enable Phuket's public transportation system to be more effective in the future and support the island as an international tourist destination. Project consultants Pyramid Development International (PDI) have a lot of experience in this field having designed the Bangkok Mass Transit System (BTS). Dr Tawatchai, Director of the Traffic and Transport Development for PDI, explained that according to the initial feasibility study the priority routes for Phuket monorail will be from Phuket International Airport (PIA) to Phuket Town and from PIA to the western coast of the island where the main tourist locations are.
?What we can see now is a limited amount of vehicles offering transport from the airport and there is not even a successful airport bus yet. There is no convenient, regular or cost efficient method of transport from PIA yet. At the moment around 80% of people on the island drive cars or motorbikes instead of using public transport. This is because public transport does not offer the efficiency and convenience people need in their daily lives.?
However he added that their study would not solve all the problems in Phuket because they are only focusing on the practicality of the public transportation system. Political and economic factors would be a problem that others would have to deal with.
?Columbia is a good example for the evolution of a public transportation system. The Governor there managed to get dedicated road sections for public use only which made their public transportation more effective. Phuket roads are currently dominated by businesses such as vendors, Tuk Tuk and motorbike taxis.? Khun Suwit said, ?We will first study the possible routes and find areas that will affect existing natural resources and historically-valued buildings the least. This process will take into account the expropriation of land as well.?
He explained that the conceptual design of the monorail system will depend on the results and opinions from the first seminars that are scheduled to take place in January next year. People's demands and concerns for the system will be included in the draft plan and then discussed and presented to the public again in the second seminar in March next year. The seminar targets will comprise of at least 80 attendees who will share opinions about the project. People directly related to the issue will be invited including project consultants, central and local government representatives, press, local residents, business owners, educational institutes, technicians, environmentalists and Phuket Natural Resources and Environmental Provincial Office.
