PHUKET: Questions will be asked of the tuk-tuk and taxi drivers of Kata-Karon today as police and officials puzzle over how best to solve Phuket's big public transport issue - there are too many vehicles and too little control.

A special panel of police and transport officials took to the streets of the Phuket west coast holiday region last week, having been told by tuk-tuk and taxi leaders that a solution would probably be not too difficult.

But the special panel quickly discovered that most so-called taxi stands had no leaders, and that there were also no lists of the taxis and tuk-tuks that used each stand.

Today the officials and police who were disappointed by what they encountered last week will return to meet the tuk-tuk and taxi leaders and demand real answers.

Like aliens recently landed on Planet Phuket, they will be forced to ask: ''Take us to your leaders.''

The problem is that the tuk-tuk and local taxi drivers, along with most of the local groups on Phuket, have not desire to be under official control.

The plan to make Kata-Karon tuk-tuk and taxis sign on to accept official standards and to be given recognition with official stickers will founder unless real agreement can be reached in talks today.

The consequences of the number of tuk-tuks and taxis growing out of control on Phuket with no regulation became obvious last week with the bashing of a tour driver outside a five-star resort at Kamala.

And sheer numbers of local taxis and tuk-tuks in Phuket's Kata-Karon region especially make for the narrow streets becoming congested by more than 50 taxi tuk-tuk standing ranks.

Phuket Director of Transport Terayoot Prasertphol has a better idea - organise all tuk-tuk and taxi drivers into a central radio-controlled parking area. The existing car park alongside the Kata-Karon council offices would be ideal.

That way, Kata-Karon tuk-tuk and taxi drivers could be on-call on rotation to all resorts within Phuket's Kata-Karon coastal region. The streets would be free of clutter. Phuket would have a useful example of what needs to follow to bring public transport on Phuket into the 21st Century.

Khun Terayoot has also suggested that three bus routes, to be run by the Phuket Provincial Administrative Organisation, would be ideal to smooth the passage of tourists from Phuket International Airport to the west and south of Phuket.

He aims to invite the organisation to take up a contract.

Phuket's tuk-tuks and taxis, though, will be the focus today. One other problem is the extortionate fares. Phuket Governor Tri Augkaradacha negotiated a set of maximum fares for Phuket earlier this year, to be negotiated down.

But as the meeting of Phuket's deeply-concerned international honorary consuls heard late last month, the maximum has become a minimum.

And as the gathering also heard, tourists or expats can face a ''dog pack attack'' and be put in hospital in a coma by irate drivers on Phuket even if the argument is over as little as 100 baht.