From: kamol@ipied.tu.ac.TH (Kamol Hengkietisak)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.thai
Subject: Bangkok Post Jan 24: A new city -- Will it work?
Date: 24 Jan 93 15:54:51 GMT
Organization: Mail/News gateway
NNTP-Posting-Host: munnari.oz.au


Relocation of the Thai capital had been contemplated more than 
once in the past. Now the need is more acute than ever with 
worsening traffic conditions and pollution problems aggravated by 
overpopulation. The Interior Ministry has now, once again, 
proposed to relocate government agencies out of Bangkok. All agree 
the timing is right, but not all agree with the thrust of the 
plan. SOMBAT RAKSAKUL and KRISSANA PARNSOONTHORN report.
 
BUILDING a new city may be easy, but the real challenge lies in 
how to make it work. The Interior Ministry has drafted a plan to 
relocate Bangkok-based government offices to a new city, the site 
for which has not been decided yet. The plan is now awaiting 
approval from the Cabinet.
 
The ministry is hoping that the private sector will follow suit 
and contribute to the prosperity of the new city.
 
However, experts warn that moving the offices may be a simple 
thing to do, but attracting financial support for the new site may 
not be easy.
 
Most city planners are concerned that the project, if left in the 
hands of Interior officials, may eventually die a quiet death 
"without really achieving any goals".
 
They point out that Bangkok's traffic congestion and overcrowding 
problems are, in fact, a result of poor planning and lack of 
control on development.
 
They claim that the bureaucrats mainly focus on the technical 
aspects of the problems and seek short-term solutions. The 
government needs systematic and long-term policies to these 
issues, they stress.
 
The city planners say that instead of tackling the root cause of 
an existing problem, the bureaucrats come up with new projects.
 
Building a new city would be like moving old problems to a new 
place, said Dr Apichat Wongkaew, president of the Thai City 
Planner Society.
 
A new city goes against the nature of a "living city", he adds.
 
Like a tree planted on a vast plain, the new city will soon wilt 
and die because the private sector will not follow suit as 
expected, he warns.
 
The so-called satellite towns in some European countries such as 
England, Scotland and Sweden became "dead cities" because very few 
people lived there, said Dr Apichat who has studied sattelite 
towns for many years.
 
A new city is also vulnerable to problems such as crime and social 
malaise.
 
Without economic development and diversity of activities and 
culture, residents will have no incentive to live in a new city, 
Dr Apichat says.
 
"A city needs key elements for its survival such as natural 
resources, culture, and a transportation system linking it to the 
capital," he says.
 
The government must also pay attention to the quality of life. It 
should watch the development process closely, in particular, the 
economic, social and environmental factors, he adds.
 
According to Manop Bhongsadhat, a lecturer in architecture at 
Chulalongkorn University, a "living city" based on a British 
principle on city-planning, should have at least a million people, 
failing which culture will not take root. If the population is 
larger, the city will become overcrowded, he says.
 
However, Town and Country Planning director-ge e[X  Charatsri 
Teepirach wants a new city that can accommodate about 100,000 
people.
 
"The relocation of government agencies will be carried out 
gradually, step-by-step," she says.
 
This means, says Dr Apichat, the satellite town will be "dependent 
on the capital.
 
"Thus the government will fail to ease traffic congestion and 
overcrowding in the capital," he warns.
 
Because a dependent satellite town will not be very far from the 
capital, "as a matter of necessity, residents will still be able 
to travel from their homes to their places of work," he says.
 
"Some families may even buy more vehicles because the members' may 
be working at places far away from each other."
 
Not only that, people engaged in businesses with the government 
agencies will also suffer as a result of the relocation, Dr 
Apichat adds.
 
As for overcrowding, Decha Boonkham, president of the Thai 
Association of Landscape Architects, predicted that by year 2000, 
Thailand will have a population of about 70 million, 60 per cent 
(or 42 million) of which will live in urban areas.
 
Bangkok's population will double and, as a result, traffic and 
overcrowding will worsen.
 
The only way to solve the traffic problem, he says, is to stop 
people from making too many trips.
 
"To achieve this goal, the government must build a self-contained 
city at least 100 kilometres away from Bangkok. The convenience of 
life in a new city with little traffic congestion and the distance 
will discourage people from commuting between Bangkok and their 
new work places," Mr Decha says.
 
On decentralisation of development away from Bangkok, city 
planners generally agree that the new-city concept will accomplish 
the objective.
 
Apart from building the new city, they suggest that the government 
should begin solving the city planning problem in Bangkok 
seriously. Monstrous cities like Bangkok, city planners point out, 
are products of poor planning and lack of control.
 
Housing projects and commercial complexes are growing in Bangkok 
without control and the unending construction has resulted in 
serious pollution and water shortage problems, they observe.
 
Architects only concentrate on how to beautify their designs, Dr 
Apichat says, while real estate developers are only worried about 
completing their projects. They do not take into consideration the 
adverse affects of their projects," Dr Apichat says.
 
The serious water-shortage problem caused by national projects 
such as the Eastern Seaboard is an example of the lack of 
systematic planning.
 
"Just one problem of water shortage alone is enough to kill the 
Eastern Seaboard project," he points out.
 
He blames political interests of the people involved as the cause 
of poor planning.
 
Certain politicians pushed the project with no concern for the 
environment and water resources, Dr Apichat says, "because they 
owned land in Chon Buri and Rayong provinces and its value 
increased because of the project".
 
Dr Apichat also expressed his concern over lack of direction and 
control on real estate development in the private sector.
 
"No one seems to be aware of the after effect of big projects such 
as the `Maung Thong Thani' housing project. It is huge, and will 
consume a large quantity of water, estimated to be about one fifth 
or one sixth the whole of Bangkok consumption. What do you think 
will happen to Bangkok's water situation in the future?," he asks.
 
A government official, who graduated with a masters' degree in 
town planning from the United States, also expressed concern over 
the relocation plan.
 
"Failure of such a huge project can bankrupt the government as it 
did in Brazil," he says.
 
To relieve overcrowding in its eastern seaboard cities and to 
realise its "dynamic march to the west policy", the  Brazilian 
government invests huge sum of money into building the new city of 
Brasilia. Big businesses failed to follow. Brasilia is now a "dead 
city", and the government which suffered heavy loses, has been 
unable to pay debts, the high-ranking official explains.
 
"Government officials are basically low-income people. And only 
small businesses such as food shops and vendors, may decide to 
move to the new city.  These are again low-income people," he 
says.
 
Finally, the city will die its own death because a mix of people 
from different income groups is necessary for the survival of any 
town," the official says.
 
A "government city" may not also lure people from Bangkok because 
it will not have enough jobs to offer, he notes.
 
An industrial city might offer more jobs than "a government city", 
he says, adding that if the Government wants to build a city like 
Washington DC in the United States, Bangkok's old city of 
Rattanakosin Island would be the ideal site.
 
Deputy Interior Minister Chamni Sakdiset, who oversees the 
Department of Town and Country Planning, backed the new-city 
proposal and said, it will help solve Bangkok's traffic problem.
 
"The relocation of government agencies will be a leading flag to 
persuade other sectors to follow," he said.
 
A high-ranking official, however, claimed that businesses in the 
area wanted to move out because their growth had been restricted 
by current regulations.
 
Chulalongkorn's architectural lecturer Manop said a new city must 
have a major activity as an attraction. The city of Nevada in the 
middle of a desert, for example, has casinos as its main 
attraction, he said.
Organization: Doctoral student, Mechanical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA