The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) and the Metropolitan Electricity Authority (MEA) are working together to move communication cables on Charoen Krung Road underground as part of efforts to beautify the city landscape and eliminate unregistered cables.

The project to tidy up communication cables on the 8.5-kilometre historic road connecting Rattanakosin Island to Bang Rak district started on Monday at Robinson Bang Rak shopping mall under the supervision of Bangkok Governor Chadchart Sittipunt.

Chadchart said the BMA and MEA had been working together to move power and communication cables on roads throughout the city underground. So far, 230 out of over 2,000km of roads in Bangkok have been tidied up.

“The MEA will be responsible for moving the power cables underground, but this operation is costly and will require some time,” said the governor. “However, moving communication cables underground is much easier and quicker, so the city will focus on this part first.”

Chadchart added that the BMA still needs to notify the National Broadcasting and Telecommunication Commission and network operators who own the cables before moving them. This is to ensure that the project does not interfere with telecom networks in the areas.

Chadchart was joined by his deputy, Wisanu Subsompon, who said that the job on Monday would cover identifying the owners of the cables and registering them. This process will also help weed out unregistered cables from unknown operators.

Wisanu said that cables along about 4km on Charoen Krung Road would need to be moved underground. The BMA and the MEA estimate the job could be done within a month.

After that, the authorities will start working on tidying up cables in connected bylanes, before moving to other roads, namely Convent, Sukhumvit, and the Sala Daeng intersection.

Chadchart said that the cable tidying-up project might be going slowly in the first year, but he believed the process would speed up once the city receives full cooperation from operators and related agencies.

The governor added that the MEA had set the target of tidying up cables on 450km of roads within this year. The MEA also will be responsible for registering all power cables, and marking their positions on the map of the geographic information system for future management.

Meanwhile, the MEA is planning to change 100,000 street lamps into LED lamps that can be controlled directly from the city’s smart power grid, he added.