BANGKOK: Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul visited Wongwian Yai late on Wednesday night (July 8) after heavy rain caused water to leak into an underground section of the southern Purple Line project, prompting an urgent safety inspection by transport officials and engineers.
The leak was reported inside a construction shaft beneath the tunnel area of the Tao Poon–Rat Burana, or Kanchanaphisek Ring Road, section of the Purple Line extension near Wongwian Yai. The incident followed heavy rainfall in Bangkok on July 8, with water levels inside the worksite rising during the day.
Anutin arrived at the area around midnight, after Deputy Prime Minister and Transport Minister Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn, Deputy Transport Ministers Siripong Angsakulkiat, Phattharaphong Phatraprasit and Sanphet Boonyamanee, and Deputy Interior Minister Worasit Liangprasit had also gone to the site to follow the situation.
Gardphajon Udomdhammabhakdi, governor of the Mass Rapid Transit Authority of Thailand, and Prasong Suviwattanachai, executive chairman and managing director of Unique Engineering and Construction Public Company Limited, joined the inspection.
The construction area is part of Contract 4 of the southern Purple Line project, covering the Saphan Phut–Dao Khanong section. The contract, worth 14.982 billion baht (US$447.3 million), is being carried out by Unique Engineering and Construction Public Company Limited, or UNIQ. Work in the area currently involves tunnel excavation and the construction of retaining walls.
Phattharaphong said an initial inspection found that the situation remained under control. However, he instructed the MRTA and the contractor to maintain close surveillance, carry out a full technical assessment and identify the exact cause of the leak as quickly as possible.
He said corrective measures must be taken urgently to prevent any impact on the tunnel structure, public safety or the project’s construction schedule. The MRTA and contractor were also ordered to report progress to the Transport Ministry regularly and ensure that every step followed engineering and safety standards.
Anutin said the response was being handled on an engineering basis, with efforts focused on both immediate repairs and preventive measures. He added that the amount of water inside the tunnel had not reached a level requiring road closures.
“At this stage, we can control the water level,” he said.
The prime minister said the situation differed from the earlier incident near Vajira Hospital, where a tunnel structure collapsed and pulled soil from the road surface with it. In the Wongwian Yai case, he said officials had seen the leak from the beginning and were rushing to seal it while checking whether the water level inside the tunnel was continuing to rise.
He said work had been under way since the morning and officials had been able to maintain the water level, with no sign that it was increasing.
The MRTA has coordinated the installation of equipment to measure movement in nearby buildings and structures. Anutin said no abnormal signs had been detected so far, although the area would remain under close watch. He added that the inspection process was not expected to take long.
Asked whether he had rushed to the site late at night because of concerns about a repeat of the Vajira Hospital incident (a major ground collapse in late September 2025), Anutin said the previous case had provided a difficult lesson and made authorities more alert to the need for preparedness, public warnings and assistance.
“The most important issue is public safety,” he said.
After discussions with the MRTA governor, consulting engineers and the contractor, Anutin said all parties had confirmed that the situation could be controlled and that repairs would be accelerated to restore normal conditions as soon as possible.
When reporters remarked that several ministers had been called to the site, Anutin replied that he had simply posted in a group chat that he was heading to the scene. Asked whether this was the kind of response he wanted to see, he said such coordination already happened regularly and that he had gone to the site to make sure the situation was properly handled before anything else. – The Nation/ANN
