The Metropolitan Electricity Authority's (MEA) first pilot project placing power, internet and cable wires underground has successfully been completed in six months as planned.
The project is the start of a long-term scheme to put all wires in Bangkok underground in a decade.
MEA governor Somchai Roadrungwasinkul said it selected Sukhumvit Soi 24 as its next site because the location is in a well-managed traffic area enabling work to be done smoothly round the clock so it can be completed in six months as scheduled.
This project is due to start on April 22, with all wires including power, internet, fixed telephone and cable to be buried.
As the MEA can work round the clock burying the wires, the project is expected to be completed quickly, unlike in the past when it had only seven working hours. Past projects took up to 16 months to finish, said Mr Somchai.
He said the MEA had an agreement with Metropolitan Police Bureau to help manage traffic and load some equipment to facilitate the project.
"This will be the fastest and most effective project ever," said Mr Somchai.
The MEA previously set a target to bury all the wires in Bangkok, some 260 kilometres, underground over the next decade. The project is estimated to cost up to 140 billion baht.
A combined 40 kilometres of wires have already been buried, mostly in business districts such as Silom, Phahon Yothin, Phaya Thai and Sukhumvit, as well as at Chitralada Palace.
This year the MEA plans to bury another 47 kilometres of wire in the Asok, Ratchadaphisek, Rama III and Chong Nonsi neighbourhoods, requiring 16.1 billion baht more in budget.
The underground wire initiative was started in 1989 at Silom Road and Chitralada Palace. However, the plan was delayed for a long time because of the lack of coordination between the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration, the MEA, the traffic police and several telecommunication firms.
Last year the MEA buried wire from Sukhumvit Sois 1 to 77, but telecom firms, which use electricity poles in Bangkok, refused to stop using the pole.
Mr Somchai said the MEA would give these firms one year to find new ways to provide service, as the authority will remove the poles after all the power wires are buried underground.