Yahoo – AFP,
Joe Freeman, January 11, 2018
Bangkok's Wireless Road may soon live up to its name.
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| Bangkok's Wireless Road is festooned with electrical and telecom cables, a black web that hangs menacingly overhead like dystopian Christmas decorations. (AFP Photo/LILLIAN SUWANRUMPHA) |
Bangkok's Wireless Road may soon live up to its name.
Like many
streets in the Thai capital, the thoroughfare is festooned with electrical and
telecom cables, a black web that hangs menacingly overhead like dystopian
Christmas decorations.
But Bangkok
authorities are now untangling the cables and moving them underground as part
of an urban renewal pushed by the Thai junta that seized power in 2014.
The aim is
to make Bangkok not only safer, but easier on the eyes and less prone to
blackouts.
Frayed
cables -– often live -- dangle at head-height onto Bangkok's streets, making
safe navigation of the already treacherous pavements even harder. Other wires
are left to bunch up near pylons, creeping hazardously across the narrow
walkways of the city centre.
Exposure to
the elements has also meant the cables are easily damaged, which can cause
problems for the city's electrical system.
Wireless
Road, which got its name from hosting one of Thailand's first radio
transmitting stations, is among dozens of streets targeted in the early phase
of the de-cluttering campaign.
Large
stretches of Sukhumvit Road, a central artery that cuts through high-end
neighbourhoods and tourist hotspots, have already been cleared since November.
"This
is a commercial road. We see hotels and foreigners living around here. When
they see the beautiful road, they will spread the word," Prasonk
Kumpradit, an official with Bangkok's Metropolitan Electricity Authority, told
AFP.
The project
has been planned for years, but many suspect it received an unexpected jolt
after Microsoft founder Bill Gates visited Bangkok in 2016 and took a
disapproving photo of one street's wiry web.
The
billionaire later deleted the Facebook post, which blamed the cluster of wires
on people illegally tapping into the grid.
 |
Wireless
Road, which got its name from hosting one of Thailand's first radio
transmitting stations, is among dozens of Bangkok streets targeted for
de-cluttering
(AFP Photo/LILLIAN SUWANRUMPHA)
|
'No more
disorderly stuff'
Netizens quibbled
with his diagnosis of the cable bunches, which include both telecom connections
and power supply wires, but less than a week later the government announced
that cleanup was moving forward.
So far
1,184 utility poles have been removed from three of the city's biggest roads.
Over the
next five years authorities plan to strip cables from 39 more streets totalling
127 kilometres, reinstalling the new connections under the road.
While there
are no hard figures, Bangkok authorities say that is just a fraction of the
city's cables but is still a mjor improvement on the status quo.
"The
main advantage we get is the security of the electrical system," said
Prasonk.
"When
the cables are underground, the problem with disturbances that can cause
blackouts will be gone."
Thailand's
military rulers have launched a flurry of campaigns to impose some order on
their chaotic capital in recent years, including clearing away many of
Bangkok's famous street-food stalls.
But while
that decision caused dismay in some quarters, few will shed a tear when the
cable clusters disappear.
"Taking
the wires away is really great. It makes the city clean, clear and pleasant to
look at," Sukanya Phuangdech, a 45-year-old Bangkokian, told AFP from a
newly-cleared Sukhumvit Road.
"No
more disorderly stuff. I feel like people are happier."
Martin
Fletcher, a 30-year-old teacher from England, agreed.
"Bangkok's
very famous for having all the electrical wires -- and it's a bit like
spaghetti, and they've been cleared... it's a lot nicer now," he said.
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