PEA staff clean up graffiti-covered underground electrical control boxes around Chiang Mai moat

Officials from the Provincial Electricity Authority (PEA) in Chiang Mai have been out cleaning graffiti off underground electrical control boxes around the old city moat and Tha Pae Gate. The boxes, newly installed to manage the city’s underground electrical system, had been covered in spray paint and graffiti art.

Staff used cleaning solution and cloths to scrub each box while expressing frustration at the vandals for damaging the city’s image as a tourism destination. Chiang Mai is transforming into a “wireless city” after undergrowing a project to bury power lines underground around the moat and the length of Tha Pae Road, involving more than 200 control boxes in total. The graffiti and scribbling left the boxes looking dirty and unsightly.

A PEA official said that once today’s cleaning is complete, if the boxes are vandalised again the authority will offer a reward for information leading to the vandals’ arrest. Tips can be reported to the PEA on 053-206291 or 053-241816, with reward money coming from fines collected. Spraying paint or otherwise damaging PEA control boxes is a criminal offence carrying fines of 10,000 to 100,000 baht, imprisonment from 6 months to 2 years or both.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​