Flood-approaching Bangchan Industrial Estate declares stage 1 emergency status

BANGKOK, November 10 (TNA) - The office of the Bangchan Industrial Estate on the outskirts of Bangkok has informed all 93 manufacturing plants inside the industrial site of its stage 1 flood emergency status, after water levels of the nearby Saen Saeb and Bangchan Canals rose to one metre above the mean sea level at 10.30pm on Wednesday night. Deputy Permanent Secretary for Industry Yongyuth Thongsuk said on Thursday that the alert, through mobile phones' short messages service (SMS), ordinary phone calls and emails, made by the office of the Bangchan Industrial Estate, was aimed to warn all the manufacturers to move their machines and other assets to safe grounds and to closely follow up updates from the industrial site's flood relief operations centre. Yongyuth acknowledged although a main flood prevention dyke of the Bangchan Industrial Estate is 2.10 metres above the mean sea level, stage 2 emergency status would be declared if the water levels of the Saen Saeb and the Bangchan Canals reached 1.40 metres above the mean sea level to require all workers inside the industrial estate to move to the second floor of their workplaces or to leave the industrial site through the Seree Thai and the Mom Chao Sa-nga-ngam Supradit Roads. The Bangchan Industrial Estate is the first industrial estate in Thailand. Established in 1972, the industrial estate stands in a 677-rai compound in Bangkok's Kannayao and Minburi Districts, where 93 manufacturing plants, most of them are producers of food and beverage products, are houses with a total investment fund of some 19.85 billion baht and total workers of about 13,844. (TNA)