Production to resume at Bangpa-in Industrial Estate

About 2,000 workers from the 90 plants joined the clean-up, marking the complete drainage of water from the industrial estate in Ayutthaya and the start of rehabilitation and rebuilding to restore investor confidence.

Among the seven flooded estates in Ayutthaya and Pathum Thani provinces, Bangpa-in is the second to achieve dry status, with Factory Land being the first to do so.

The estate houses a manufacturing plant of US-based Western Digital, a major producer of hard-disk drives. The suspension of Western Digital's production due to the flooding has sparked fears over HDD shortages and higher personal-computer prices next year.

"How fast they [manufacturers] can resume operations depends on the readiness of machinery and financial support," said Lukkana Meankumnerd, director of Bangpa-in Industrial Estate. "We expect some of them to restart production in December."

Besides Western Digital, the estate also houses the distribution centre of DKSH and Q-Construction Products, a subsidiary of Siam Cement Group.

Draining water out of inundated industrial estates has been a priority of the government, as the disruptions are expected to cost nearly Bt200 billion.

The Industrial Estate Authority of Thailand said in a report that Hi-Tech Industrial Estate in Ayutthaya, which had been releasing flood water since November 8, expected the drainage to be completed on November 25 by this coming Friday, and the cleaning process to be finished on December 5.

About 90 of the 143 factories at the estate will restart production on December 11, the authority said.

Meanwhile, Rojana Industrial Park in Ayutthaya, where several hundred Honda vehicles have been submerged for months, is expected to complete drainage operations by the end of the month, with about 140 plants out of 236 targeted to resume production around mid-December.

Saha Rattana Nakorn, the first industrial estate in Ayutthaya to be hit by the flooding, will be the last in the province to start drainage, which is scheduled for December 8. About 35 of its 46 plants are expected to resume production on December 20.

Inundated on October 15, Bangpa-in Industrial Estate completed the drainage of 8 million cubic metres of water on November 17 Thursday. The Provincial Electricity Authority has started supplying power for half of the factories on the estate.

To assure investors of the future safety of their facilities, Bangpa-in Land Development Co, the operator of the estate, has unveiled a plan to invest in a flood-protection system.

Bangpa-in Land Development is owned by the Trivisvavet family, which in turn is a major shareholder of Ch Karnchang, the country's second-biggest construction firm. During the drainage process, Ch Karnchang fixed the damaged infrastructure at the estate.

Plew Trivisvavet, chief executive officer of Ch Karnchang and Bangpa-in Land Development, said the company would invest about Bt700 million: Bt500 million for the flood-protection system, and Bt200 million to repair and rebuild infrastructure.

The height of the dyke surrounding the estate will be increased from 4 metres to 5 metres, while the underground floodwall will be at least a metre deep.

"We're waiting for the government's soft-loan scheme, as the investment required for the flood-protection system is huge. Construction is expected to take two years to complete," he said.