DETAILS are expected to emerge next week about a new Tesco-Lotus development on 44 rai close to the Thalang intersection in Phuket's central-north region.
While Tesco-Lotus developers have earmarked only 1000 square metres for the supermarket and convenience store brand on the large property, the central building would be a spacious 20,000 metres.
The car park would hold 727 four-wheeled vehicles and 527 motorcycles, real estate proportions that rival Phuket's original Tesco-Lotus development, which opened in 1999 on the bypass road in Phuket City.
Rubber and pineapple plantations at present cover the large earmarked site, which is about 500 metres from the Thalang turnoff to Surin beach and Laguna Phuket, on Thepkasattri Road, Phuket's main backbone highway.
The Tesco-Lotus brand - with other brands, presumably - would sit on the corner of an existing road that leads to Thalang Hospital and is currently narrowed by a median strip of planter boxes, with no parking on either side of the road.
A preliminary meeting of the Phuket Governor's special committee on the environment, which now oversees all building approvals, was informed about the Tesco-Lotus proposal last week.
The meeting was told that in a survey of local people, 64.5 percent had agreed with the proposal, 10.2 percent disagreed, while the remainder had no opinion one way or the other.
Concerns about increases in traffic, noise close to the hospital, potential road hazards and opening hours are likely to be discussed when the full approvals committee meets next week.
The proposed site is 30 kilometres from the bypass road Tesco-Lotus, which was Phuket's first large supermarket and stores development.
With Phuket's villages now rapidly merging into a sprawling urban mass, supermarket and convenience store brands have spread rapidly in the past few years. Retailers are now in the process of filling in the gaps in Phuket's once less-developed central and northern regions.
Phuket Road Show Aims to Boost Aussie VisitorsWhile Tesco-Lotus developers have earmarked only 1000 square metres for the supermarket and convenience store brand on the large property, the central building would be a spacious 20,000 metres.
The car park would hold 727 four-wheeled vehicles and 527 motorcycles, real estate proportions that rival Phuket's original Tesco-Lotus development, which opened in 1999 on the bypass road in Phuket City.
Rubber and pineapple plantations at present cover the large earmarked site, which is about 500 metres from the Thalang turnoff to Surin beach and Laguna Phuket, on Thepkasattri Road, Phuket's main backbone highway.
The Tesco-Lotus brand - with other brands, presumably - would sit on the corner of an existing road that leads to Thalang Hospital and is currently narrowed by a median strip of planter boxes, with no parking on either side of the road.
A preliminary meeting of the Phuket Governor's special committee on the environment, which now oversees all building approvals, was informed about the Tesco-Lotus proposal last week.
The meeting was told that in a survey of local people, 64.5 percent had agreed with the proposal, 10.2 percent disagreed, while the remainder had no opinion one way or the other.
Concerns about increases in traffic, noise close to the hospital, potential road hazards and opening hours are likely to be discussed when the full approvals committee meets next week.
The proposed site is 30 kilometres from the bypass road Tesco-Lotus, which was Phuket's first large supermarket and stores development.
With Phuket's villages now rapidly merging into a sprawling urban mass, supermarket and convenience store brands have spread rapidly in the past few years. Retailers are now in the process of filling in the gaps in Phuket's once less-developed central and northern regions.
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I wish Phuket would stop this type of development. The island does not need another big box business squeezing out small Thai-owned markets. The whole island will soon be a giant strip-mall. Another Tesco is not needed.
Posted by doretta on September 20, 2010 14:47
Editor Comment:
Doretta, there are two sides to this. Old-timers have told Phuketwan that they wasted the best part of a day every week shopping at different stores for different kinds of items before the supermarket came along. Even today, some people would probably starve to death without processed food and a shopping trolley. Entire homogenised modern cultures come in cans. How could you have progress without supermarkets?