Minister:"Big bags" have slowed down upstream water

BANGKOK, November 5 (TNA) - Thai Transport Minister Air Chief Marshal Sukumpol Suwanatat confirmed on Saturday that large sandbags or "big bags" laid near Muang Ek in Rangsit of Bangkok's suburban Pathum Thani Province have successfully slowed down inflows of upstream water into the capital. Air Chief Marshal Sukumpol acknowledged, however, that floodways, including those in the capital's inner areas, will be inundated by existing deluges, which will be then drained out to the sea, through canals and rivers, by agencies concerned, namely the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA). The transport minister said that he has also instructed his ministry's permanent secretary to direct the restoration of the No. 340 highway, linking Bang Bua Thong area in Bangkok's suburban Nonthaburi Province with nearby Suphan Buri Province, to facilitate land transport from the capital to the southern region in case that the Rama II Road would be cut off due to, probably, heavy flooding in the coming days. According to the minister, floodwater in Bangkok's western areas or the Thonburi side will be allowed to naturally flow out to the sea in the Samut Sakhon Province through the Rama II Road. The transport minister insisted that the government never has a policy to turn the Vibhavadi-Rangsit Road, a most strategic route in the city where its Flood Relief Operations Centre (FROC) is housed at the Energy Complex Building, to be a natural floodway as some have proposed. (TNA)