WITH house products chain HomePro opening its second branch, Chalong residents and visitors are preparing to see a much wider range of shopping and dining options - and more traffic around the five-way Chalong Circle nearby.

A proposal introduced last year to use traffic lights instead of the roundabout seems likely to be dropped, Phuketwan has learned.

Will the flow around the circle increase with today's opening? We will see. Police and the retailer are expecting more traffic in the early days of opening.

As well as selling building supplies and furniture in the main HomePro store, the complex will introduce some well-known brands to the area.

Village supermarket, KFC, MK restaurant and Sports World are among the shops opening in the weeks and months ahead.

HomePro Phuket General Manager Kotchakorn Yawichai says the store is working with police in Chalong to plan routing incoming traffic to side roads.

This will help visitors to HomePro gain access to the store without having to pass through the circle, he said.

Motorists coming down Chaofa East Road from Phuket City are advised to get onto Chaofa West Road via Anusorn Road, a right turn off Chaofa East before the circle.

People coming from Kata-Karon will be redirected to Soi Anuthep, a small road that leads drivers onto Chaofa West between the circle and HomePro.

Signs will be erected at entrances to the alternative routes, Khun Kotchakorn said. Chalong police will help control traffic at the store's entrance on the opening day and other days if traffic flow is still heavy.

HomePro's opening ceremony starts at 9:30am.

Khun Kotchakorn says that the Chalong branch is larger than the store at Tesco-Lotus, with a sales floor area of 6600 square meters and a plaza zone of 5000 sqm.

The car park will be able to accommodate up to 200 vehicles.

HomePro selected the Chalong site because the company saw strong growth in the island's southwest area, in both residential and resort projects, Khun Kotchakorn said.

Even with the economic downturn, the Phuket property market would continue to grow, he said.

On opening day the project will be ''95 percent complete'', with some stores including the Village supermarket and Sports World set to open March 1.

Not only will the Chalong Home Pro be larger, it will have more variety of products than the Tesco-Lotus Phuket branch, Khun Kotchakorn said.

The Chalong branch, built on a budget of 500 million baht, has more than 200 staff.

Khun Kotchakorn said there are no plans for another HomePro on Phuket.

With the new Chalong branch, the retailer has 34 branches in Thailand including one in Krabi that opened in mid-2008. It is listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand.

Chalong Traffic: Solving the Snarl

PHUKET Highway Office official Sathaporn Sornchana says that Chalong police were concerned that traffic lights would cause more delays, not less.

Some 80,000 vehicles pass through the circle each day.

An expert has been brought in to study the roads and discuss options with Chalong police and the highway office, Khun Sathaporn said, and is expected to complete the Chalong Circle plan in the middle of March.

The plan then must go to the Highways Department Regional Branch in Nakhon Sri Thammarat for approval. The Department has already granted a budget of three million baht for the project.

Traffic lights are still being considered, but these are just one of a number of options being studied, he said.

In the meantime, some measures are being taken to help reduce traffic problems.

Chief of Chalong Police Station Pol Col Chinnarat Rittakananon, told Phuketwan that to resolve the traffic jams around Chalong Circle, police will set a car park area in a zone opposite the police station.

As well, a U-turn point at the Chalong Health Office to allow cars to more safely turn into Home Pro will be finished in March.

Khun Sathaporn said that for most of the day traffic flows very well through the circle; only the evening peak hours have traffic jams.