Bangkok Governor Chadchart Sittipunt has vowed to improve garbage disposal services around the capital by ensuring two trips a week by garbage collection trucks and also vowed to crack down on vendors operating on main roads.
Chadchart made the promise an inspection trip to the Phra Khanong district office on Saturday.
After observing the work of the district office, Chadchart said he had instructed the office to make sure that garbage in all areas of the districts be picked up by garbage trucks at least two times a week.
He said he had found seven spots in Phra Khanong from where garbage was picked up only once a week.
He explained that the seven spots were areas where not much garbage was left by local residents, but added that the services still needed to be improved anyway.
He said he had given the Phra Khanong district office one month to improve the service and he would make sure that garbage trucks would be dispatched to collect garbage in all areas of the capital at least twice a week.
The governor said he understood the Phra Khanong district might not have enough staff but the district could have its garbage collectors work overtime by gathering the garbage at the same places for speedy retrieval by trucks later.
Chadchart added that Phra Khanong district has a strategic location, linking inner Bangkok to outer parts of the capital. It is spread over 13 square kilometres with 80,000 residents.
The governor added that the district office was providing quite good services to the city residents by using the Traffy Fondue app to monitor issues of the local residents.
Chadchart said local residents have also complained about road conditions and missing or broken lids of sewerage systems.
The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration would earmark a budget for the district office to repair roads and lids of the sewerage systems on over 100 alleys of the district, the governor added.
He said the district has two main roads, which are Sukhumvit and the Old Rot Fai Road. He said the Old Rot Fai Road was damaged often, as it was used by heavy trucks running to and from the Klong Toey Port and to refinery plants in the area.
He said the Old Rot Fai Road was damaged often as the trucks there were often overloaded. The district office would find a way to install automatic weighing scales to check the trucks.
The governor added that the district office would also coordinate with the Industrial Works Department to ensure that refineries and cement factories in the area do not violate industrial emission limits.
Chadchart added that the Phra Khanong district also had received complaints about street vendors occupying the pavements along Sukhumvit.
He said he had instructed the district office to crack down on street vending on the sidewalks of Sukhuvmit and to check the sidewalks of Sukhumvit Soi 101, Sukhumvit Soi 96 and Sukhumvit Soi 93 regularly to make sure that there were no street vendors blocking the walkway of pedestrians.
Chadchart added that Phra Khanong district has four or five flood-risk areas and the district office has already taken measures to tackle the problems.
One of them was Sukhumvit Sri 101/1. He said the flood tunnel under Sukhumvit Soi 101/1 has started operating to prevent floods in the area.
The BMA would next improve the road condition and drainage system on Sukhumvit Soi 64 to prevent flooding, the governor assured.