Will Chatuchak market close ?
Chatuchak Weekend Market is an institution in Bangkok that attracts every Saturday and Sunday more than 200,000 people per day. Largest market in the country and one of the biggest in Asia, it has even become one of the most visited tourist attractions in Bangkok and is on the agenda of many organized trips and visits. Today it is threatened with closure…
If it is today installed at Chatuchak, opposite the park since 1982, the Weekend Market first took place at Sanam Luang, opposite the Wat Phra Kaew temple and was then called Sanam Luang Flea Market. But the place was requisitioned to celebrate the bicentenary of the Bangkok city, so the market was relocated to Chatuchak where he continuously spread. So it’s hard to imagine that anything could stop but after seeingSuan Lum Night Bazaar, another very popular market in Bangkok that I personally regret, disappear a few years ago, we know that anything is possible in Thailand.
This time, it’s not a realstate project that may cause Chatuchak market’s closure, but a dispute over the stall rental fee. It was relatively unnoticed but the market is no longer the property of the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration. The lease ended last year and State Railway of Thailand took over it. SRT is the most heavily indebted government agency in the country which probably explains why it decided to raise rental fees from 890 to 3.157 baht per month. Over three and a half times more expensive. It is not a small increase! SRT justified new price by the fact that it includes other services such as electricity and water. But this argument has not convinced Chatuchak merchants, determined not to accept the increase without fighthing, they took the case to court. Last Thursday, the Central Administrative Court ruled in their favor arguing that if SRT is the market’s owner, given that market activity has no connection with the rail transportation, SRT has no authority to manage it. A temporary victory because the company prepares to take its case to the Supreme Administrative Court. SRT has also threatened to close the market if the agency loses. A blackmail wich may only aims to put pressure but could actually really lead to Chatuchak Weekend Market’s closure…
