Phayao’s Chalerm Phra Kiat Nong Leng Sai Park Renovation Hits a 9.6 Million Baht Snag

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In the heart of Phayao province, a renovation endeavor that promised to breathe new life into the cherished Chalerm Phra Kiat Nong Leng Sai Park has hit a rather unfortunate snag. Picture this: an ambitious project, valued at a significant 9.6 million baht, now languishes in a state of abandonment, leaving Mother Nature to slowly reclaim her space amidst scattered building materials, unruly grass, and sinking roads. The entire scene offers a rather surreal blend of nature meeting human aspiration gone astray.

Just yesterday, April 22, a journalist set foot in the park, compelled by the ripples of discontent spreading across social media channels. This incomplete park, affectionately dubbed the “lung of Mae Chai,” had suddenly found itself in the limelight for all the wrong reasons. It was a project orchestrated by Phayao’s Department of Public Works and Town & Country Planning, meant to transform the area with four pivotal constructions—a public restroom, stone steps leading to Nong Leng Sai, an embankment with sturdy precast concrete walls, and a reinforced concrete activity zone.

Back in the planning stages, the budget torch was lit with a blaze of 14,437,600 baht, peppered with the hope of traversing toward completion at a median cost of 10,335,100 baht. The baton of responsibility was handed over via electronic bidding, with the winners clinching the deal for 9,690,000 baht. Ah, it started with a flourish, undershooting the original budget by an impressive 32.88%. But, alas, optimism makes for a poor architect when the contract timelines crumble unchecked.

The project deadline was etched for September 2024, promising completed restrooms and fortified embankments by that date. However, fate played its cards differently, and the calendar pages flipped with the construction standing still. Curious souls across social media couldn’t help but wonder—had the responsible authorities officially marked the contractor’s sudden departure as abandonment? The cries for investigation echoed to the Department of Public Works and Town & Country Planning’s very doorstep.

Upon inspection, the scene was a stark portrait of incompleteness. Metal doors of what could have been modern facilities stood battered, and nearby pavilions told tales of ambition cut short, resting awkwardly upon wooden scaffolds and surrounded by errant stacks of tiles. Turning one’s gaze to the landscapes, the overgrowth danced with every breeze, and roads had given a gentle bow before nature’s relentless grip.

In a bid to clear the air and presumably underline an elaborate tale of jurisdictional maze, Teerawat Kiangkam, the director of Phayao’s Department of Public Works and Town & Country Planning, surfaced with clarification. The origination, funding, and termination of the project, he explained, stem from Phayao’s Department of Tourism and Sports. His own department had only lent the blueprint of the vision, but not the almighty purse nor the spade to see it through.

The narrative took another twist with insights from Phanuphan Iamubonwan of the Department of Tourism and Sports. The renovation project, born in 2023 and nurtured by Mae Chai district, was part of a duo of undertakings encompassing four contracts. Alas, while three came to fruition, the fourth, concerning the park, was left to embroider itself into this tale of inertia at the closing bells of last year. Rest assured though, steps are underway as the said department nudges the contractor according to book and law, seeking a resolution, while the land returns to the custody of Mae Chai Municipality in pursuit of use permissions from the Treasury Department.

Despite the hurdles, the soothing breezes of Nong Leng Sai were welcomed officially on December 26, last year. Mae Chai district officiated this grand yet solemn affair—an inauguration set against an unfinished backdrop, yet pregnant with promise and the tantalizing prospect of what the future may hold.