Minister: Suvarnabhumi Airport will be safe from floods

BANGKOK, November 10 (TNA) - Transport Minister Air Chief Marshal Sukumpol Suwanatat insisted on Thursday that Thailand's main Suvarnabhumi International Airport would not be inundated due to its fully-prepared flood prevention although floodwater appeared to be only some seven kilometres from the airport. Air Chief Marshal Sukumpol acknowledged that a line of large sandbags, known as "big bags", which is some 3.5 meters high could control runoffs from Bangkok's northern outskirts, where police and the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) should be able to seek cooperation from affected people living above the line of "big bags", as floodwater levels within Bangkok have been falling by some 40 centimetres. Regarding concerns that the Rama II Road, a major route linking Bangkok with the South, the minister said that the road now remains passable and if it was inundated, floodwater would be let cross the road to reach the sea as soon as possible, nothing that the government has prioritized water drainage over traffic, and that officials are retrieving Highway No. 340 to be an optional route to the South although the retrieval will take some times as the highway has remained one metre under floodwater. The transport minister, meanwhile, has not officially assessed road damages caused by the country's vast floods since late July, roughly estimating that they should cost a total state budget of tens of billions baht and promising that the government will speed up the repair of main highways and access to flooded industrial estates and distribution centres within a year, followed later by other roads. (TNA)