PHUKET: A pavilion at Surin Beach that was built in 2007 under a budget of B13 million to honour the royal visit of King Bhumibol Adulyadej (Rama 9) to the beach in 1957 has been demolished due to its state of disrepair, an official at Cherng Talay Tambon Administration Organisation (OrBorTor) has confirmed.
Sudachan Manabut, Director of the Cherng Talay OrBorTor’s “Strategy Unit”, told The Phuket News this morning (June 16) that the plan is to build the new pavilion under the same concept to honour the visit of King Bhumibol, who visited the beach on March 10, 1959.
“The pavilion was removed about the end of December last year as it was old and run down. Initially, we were considering renovating the pavilion but we consulted the Fine Arts Department to evaluate the project and they suggested demolishing it instead as [they said] it was not worth renovating compared with the cost of building a new one,” she said.
“We also filed the demolition plan to the Cabinet for approval,” Ms Sudachan said.
The new design from the Fine Arts Department will use durable materials that suit the weather near the sea as the old one had suffered a lot of rust, Ms Sudachan explained.
Cherng Talay OrBorTor publicly announced the demolition of the pavilion to local residents and there was a community meeting set to get their opinion, Ms Sudachan said.
“The local people were informed about it and we had a hearing. The locals did not disagree with the demolition,” she said.
However, in a public response to questions about the demolition raised by Phuket Info Center, which operates under the Phuket office of the Ministry of Interior, Cherng Talay OrBorTor said that the public notice announced a “renovation” of the pavilion, not a demolition.
Phuket Info Center yesterday posted a notice explaining that the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) had previously instructed Cherng Talay OrBortor to change the public notice to clarify that the pavilion was to be demolished. It was not reported when the NACC gave its order, or why the NACC was involved in reviewing the project.
Ms Sudachan today said that the new pavilion will be built on the elevated area near the football field at Surin Beach, where King Bhumibol actually visited in person.
“The budget for the project has not yet been set as we have to wait for the finalised design from the Fine Arts Department,” she said.
“We have not yet made any plans for the location where the old pavilion stood as there is a plan for landscape development for the whole area of Surin Beach. We are waiting for the budget on this,” Ms Sudachan added.
So far Cherng Tala OrBorTor has not responded to questions about why the old pavilion was in such a state of unsalvageable repair after costing B13mn to build.
Questions as to the extent of rust the old pavilion had suffered and the building materials used also remain unanswered, considering that even in its design stage it was always known that it was to be exposed to beachfront conditions.
Of note, the old pavilion was built during the period while Samran MaAnn served as President of Cherng Talay OrBorTor.
