Minister:340 Bangkok-Southern Highway To Be Dried Out By Nov 14

BANGKOK, November 13 (TNA) - Thai Transport Minister Air Chief Marshal Sukumpol Suwanatat said Sunday that the 340 Bang Bua Thong-Suphan Buri Highway, an optional land route linking Bangkok with the Thai South, will be dried out and passable for vehicles by November 14. Air Chief Marshal Sukumpol told reporters that his ministry's Department of Highways has been speeding up draining floodwater out of the road, particularly at its highly-inundated Sombatburi section. In response to a proposed idea for the government to also restore the Petchakasem Road, another land route linking the capital with the country's southern region, Air Chief Marshal Sukumpol explained that the idea appears to be impractical, as, unlike the vertical northward-southward 340 Bang Bua Thong-Suphan Buri Highway, the horizontal eastward-westward Petchakasem Road will, instead, block floodways and worsen existing inundations in adjacent zones. Regarding to expanding flooding on to the Rama II Road, another main route linking Bangkok with southern provinces, the transport minister acknowledged that it is hard to assess how deep communities along the road will be submerged, but his ministry has been urgently removing barriers from the road to facilitate floodwater outflows to the sea, through the road, as quickly as possible. According to the minister, Airports of Thailand Public Company Limited (AOT) has been assigned to restore the flooded Don Mueang Airport by lining up some 1,000 large sandbags, known as "big bags" at the entrance of the old Thai international airport, now a major centre for domestic flights, on the Vibhavadi-Don Mueang Road to block new water inflows and to facilitate floodwater recession inside the 4,000-rai airport compound naturally, after which repairs of the airport, covering its runways and taxiways, will be complete within 60 days. In response to a protesting move by communities above a long "big bag" line-up to slow down run-offs from Bangkok's northern side to the capital's inner areas, the transport minister insisted that floodwater between areas below and above the "big bag" line-up has been both receding to similar levels, urging people in the affected communities not to break up the "big bag" line-up to help keep the government's overall flooding solutions for Bangkok remaining intact. (TNA)