Monday, April 19, 2010

Province administration outside central town

Normally, the province hall (Sala Klang, ศาลากลางจังหวัด) is located right in the middle of the town with the same name. Often, there's even a full government center, including other offices like the Provincial Administrative Organization (PAO) and the provincial court (San Changwat, ศาลจังหวัด), sometimes even the district office of the Mueang district and the municipality, for example the one in Nonthaburi I have documented here already. But like every rule, there are the exceptions, when the original province hall became too small and not enough space was available to build the replacement in town anymore.

The first one I noticed was Kamphaeng Phet. Originally, the province hall was located close to the entrance of the historical park. Now, the old building is used by the district office instead, and the new province hall is located about 7 kilometer north of it in Nong Pling subdistrict, still in the Mueang district but outside the municipality. Judging from the satellite picture, the provincial court has moved to the new location as well, whereas the PAO is still at the old location, though I don't know which building it is exactly.

In Lampang, the old province hall area seems to be deserted completely, at least none of the office I know about is located in there now. The province hall is in Phra Bat subdistrict, 6 kilometer southeast of the old location. The PAO is even further away, in Sala subdistrict of Ko Khae district. The provincial court is located next to the province hall, while next to the old province hall the district court is found. The district office finally is still in a rather small building near the old administration center. For this case I have made a small map, as there are quite a lot of buildings concerned.

View Lampang government offices in a larger map


The final case I am aware of is the PAO of Phisanulok, which is at the road Phitsanulok to Nakhon Thai in Samo Khae subdistrict. However I wasn't able to find the building in the satellite image yet, so it may have moved just recently and so the building might just be too recent.

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