The six-metre-wide, 60-metre-long bridge, located in Ban Huai Taphan Moo 4 in Tambon Wang Chik, was designed by the Phichit bridge construction centre and built by local villagers. The bridge cost just over Bt4 million and was funded by state agencies.
The bridge, which has solar-powered streetlights, has been built to make merit in honour of the late King as well as to help with transport, especially during floods. Whenever Klong Huai Taphan bursts its banks, the existing roads in the district are impassable.
Phichit Provincial Administrative Organisation president Chatchai Jiamsripong, who attended the opening ceremony yesterday along with provincial governor Weerasak Wichitsaengsi, said this would give the villagers a sense of ownership, and that they would take good care of the bridge.

Tourists appeared sombre compared to their usual behaviour in the Palace grounds.
Very few foreigners were seen taking selfies or engaging in casual banter.
“We do understand and respect the passing of the King and the people here … Although we have not prepared any black clothes because we didn’t know we would have to, we do respect the passing of the monarch and this country,” Yoann Lecointre, a 40-year-old Frenchman, said.
Lecointre and his partner Marie Renard, 34, added that they were amazed by the close ties between Thai people and the monarch.
“In France, we have no king. We have no idea to what extent people can love and revere a king. It’s so amazing for us to see how the people here respect the monarch. The national one-year mourning period after his passing also surprises us. In our country if a very important figure dies, the mourning period could be just up to about two weeks,” Lecointre said.
The Temple of the Emerald Buddha, a famous landmark in Bangkok adjacent to the Grand Palace, where the late King’s body rests, had been off limits to tourists since October 14.
“I plan to leave Thailand tomorrow and fortunately the temple opened today, otherwise I would not have had a chance to visit here,” Spaniard Pablo Romero, 33, said yesterday.
Tourists who came to the Temple yesterday saw huge crowds of mourners wearing black queuing to pay their respects to the late King inside the Dusit Maha Prasat Throne Hall at the palace.
The lines of tourists and mourners were separate as they entered the Grand Palace from different gates. Wisetchaisri Gate has been set aside for tourists from 8am to 4pm, while mourners enter the palace via Manee Nopparat Gate during the day and are only allowed to enter via the Wisetchaisri Gate between 4pm and 9pm.
“We plan to spend our holidays here, let’s say for leisure purpose. When it turns out that the country is in the mourning period, it’s fine. We do understand,” said Anke Schuster, 40, from Germany.
Schuster and her six travelling companions all said they felt sorry about the King’s passing and realised how they should behave.
Pornchai Sea-lee, a tour guide leading a group of Chinese tourists at the temple, said he had informed his group about appropriate attire and the code of conduct for tourists during the mourning period when visiting such royal attractions
“We can feel the grief covering the country. We appreciate the people and management here. Visiting here, all authorities welcomed and facilitated us,” said Wang Bi Bong, 27, a Chinese tourist on Pornchai’s tour group.
The Ministry of Tourism and Sports assured tourists yesterday that they could conveniently visit the Temple despite the big crowds of mourners in the adjacent area.
Anan Wongbenjarat, deputy head of the ministry’s Department of Tourism, said tour buses could easily drop tourists at designated spots such as in front of Royal Rattanakosin Hotel at Saphan Chang Rongsi Bridge.
There are shuttle buses between the designated spots and the Temple.

In the early years, the country had few hospitals, with many people in rural areas having no access to proper medical services. Even in larger towns, advanced medical treatment was scarcely available.
In the later years of His Majesty’s reign, however, the situation had been completely transformed, with Thailand recognised around the world as a medical hub.
With his father a doctor and his mother a nurse by training, His Majesty always demonstrated a keen interest and insight about the healthcare sector.
In hindsight, it is clear that His Majesty placed an emphasis on not just quality of services but also equality.
Soon after the King took the throne, he engaged in royal activities supporting the advancement of medicine and public health with the aim of treating all Thais equally while aiding the country’s development.
Pornchai Matangkasombut, a former president of Mahidol University, said during a previous exhibition of His Majesty’s contributions to the realm of medicine that the King was determined to continue the work of his father, Prince Mahidol of Songkla, who is recognised by Thais as “The Father of Modern Medicine and Public Health of Thailand”, and his mother Her Royal Highness Princess Srinagarindra, who is considered Thailand’s “Mother of Social Welfare”.
The King once stated his personal goal that “all Thais must have the opportunity to access the best medical treatments and disease prevention so they could be all healthy,” Pornchai cited, adding that the King had contributed to Thai medicine all along.
In the first year of his reign, His Majesty set up a royal medical team to follow him on his constant visits to every region of the country – particularly in remote and underdeveloped rural areas – to provide mobile medical treatment to local people.
The King also saw to it that hospitals were built and scholarships granted to poor students to study medicine. He founded and personally funded the Ananda Mahidol Scholarship for excellent academic and good moral students to study at the world’s leading institutes so they could bring back knowledge to help Thailand’s development, Pornchai said.
The scholarships were initially available only to medical students but were later extended to students in various other fields.
This scholarship programme was special as it had no written contracts between the grantor and the recipients, as the King had stated, “if the committee selected good persons, there was no need for contracts”. The scholarships were regarded as “a heartfelt promise” that made the awarded students feel thankful for the King’s kindness. On their return, they would apply their knowledge for the benefit of the country.
As a patron of the Thai Red Cross Society since his coronation in 1946, His Majesty worked hard helping people in various times of health crisis.
In 1950 when the country suffered from an outbreak of tuberculosis (TB), His Majesty donated money from his personal assets for the construction of Mahidol Wongsanusorn Building for medical purposes, including the development of domestically-produced BCG (Bacillus Calmette-Guerin) vaccines. The vaccines were effective in protecting Thais against TB, and the UNICEF’s welfare organisation for mothers and children also bought them for use in other Asian countries.
His Majesty consulted with Luang Payung Vejasart, then director-general of the Department of Public Health, that year and was quoted as saying: “Director-General, these days can tuberculosis be cured yet? Do we lack any medicines? If needed, I will provide you with them. I would like to see the country’s medical affairs progress.”
In 1955, when polio was a health threat for Thai people, His Majesty set up the Polio Songkroh Fund and had the Or Sor Radio Station at Dusit Palace invite members of the public to donate money for building projects and equipment including the “iron lung” for Siriraj Hospital and Phra Mongkutklao Hospital.
His Majesty also had the royal medical team provide mobile medical treatment on the Thai Red Cross’s Vejapaha barge, dubbed the world’s first medical boat, for the people residing along riverbanks. The service is still in operation.
In 1958, when the country was hit by a cholera epidemic leading to hundreds of deaths, His Majesty granted his personal fund to the development of vaccine and the production of good-quality saline as well as setting up the Anti-Cholera Fund, for which he also provided the seeding donation.
He also granted funding for the purchase of equipment for cholera research until Thai health officials, collaborating with US Army officers at the time, were able to identify the cause of the outbreak in three months.
Thanks to His Majesty’s urgent aid and all agencies’ collaboration, the outbreak was brought to an end in 17 months. During the time, His Majesty also allowed members of the public to send in song requests for His Majesty to play the saxophone to raise donations for the cause.
His Majesty also initiated the production of the “Private Royal Films” with the aim of raising donations for medical developments such as the constructions of Siriraj Hospital’s Ananda Mahidol Building, Somdet Chaopraya Psychiatry Hospital’s Rajasathit Building, the Thai Red Cross Compound’s Vajiralongkorn Building and Bhumibol Hospital’s Medical Building as well as Raj PrachaSamasai Institute for Leprosy Patients.
Back in 1955, leprosy was a raging threat in Thailand. The Public Health Ministry, in collaboration with the World Health Organisation, came up with a plan to control the disease in 12 years. His Majesty moved quickly in the hope of making sure that the disease was controlled faster, within eight years.
His Majesty initiated royal projects such as the Raj PrachaSamasai Institute for Leprosy to treat and rehabilitate leprosy patients, as well as giving them occupational training.
The royal care had also extended to their children, who had difficulty studying at general schools where other students were worried about becoming infected. So a school was set up for the children of leprosy patients.
From his visits to rural areas and the royal medical team being in high demand by villagers, His Majesty also instructed more medical units and projects to be set up. They included a project which would see public-sector doctors taking turns to provide medical services in remote areas and a “Mor Muban” (village doctor) project that trained literate volunteers to provide first aid and basic ailment remedies, and to arrange referral of serious cases to hospitals.
In fact, since taking the throne, His Majesty recognised the need for the country to produce more medical workers. During a degree-conferral ceremony for graduates from Siriraj, Thailand’s only medical and nursing school back then, His Majesty expressed the wish to produce more medical staff.
In response to His Majesty’s initiative, the government approved the budget to set up a new medical school at the Chulalongkorn Hospital.
His Majesty’s dentist, Than Phuying Phetchara Techakamphuch, who is also director of the royal dentistry unit, gave a speech once recalling that, after she treated His Majesty in 1970, he asked if people in rural areas would have dentists to take care of them.
Learning that it was unlikely and some provinces such as Mae Hong Son didn’t even have a dentist in each district, His Majesty said that, since poor rural people could not leave their farms to visit the city, dentists should occasionally visit their areas to provide treatment.
His remark was the beginning of the country’s mobile dentistry service, she said. His Majesty provided a fully-equipped mobile dental clinic unit along with a driver and an assistant and asked for two volunteers from Chulalongkorn University’s Faculty of Dentistry to service rural areas.
The vehicle was anointed by the King himself in April 1970 at Klai Kangwon Palace in Prachuap Khiri Khan’s Hua Hin district before it made the first trip to treat people in Thap Sakae district, she recalled.
The dental services would be provided periodically all year round except for the rainy season and would visit one district a day, she said.
From the first phase of providing simple tooth removal services and dental hygiene information to the rural people, the unit, boosted by an increase in volunteers, can now carry out more complicated procedures such as those performed at large hospitals, she said.
Foreign dentists also joined in the volunteer work as the unit became the largest of its kind in the world – with all the expenses covered by His Majesty the King.
  Projects received world’s acclaim 
AS HIS MAJESTY worked hard for the good health of his people, international health organisations presented him with numerous prestigious awards including:
-The Health-for-All Gold Medal, presented to His Majesty on November 24, 1992, by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the achievement of the social goal of health for all.
-The Partnering for World Health Award, presented to His Majesty on November 13, 1996, by the American College of Chest Physicians in recognition of his efforts to promote the prevention and cure of chest diseases in Thailand and his devotion for the good health and well-being of all citizens.
– The ICCIDD Gold Medal, presented to His Majesty on June 25, 1997, by the International Council for the Control of Iodine Deficiency Disorders (ICCIDD) in recognition of his leadership, guidance and direction to the National IDD Control Project.
– The Gold Medal Award, |presented to His Majesty on November 24, 1998, by the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (IUATLD) in recognition of his long, invaluable contributions to global lung health.

Investigations of the mass deaths of giant freshwater stingrays last month seemed to have reached a conclusion when tests showed the Rajburi Ethanol factory released industrial wastewater into Mae Klong River “by accident”. The Pollution Control Department has duly filed a lawsuit against the company.
It sounds like a positive ending to a tragic event which killed more than 50 critically endangered stingrays along with countless other creatures in the river as it flowed through Ratchaburi and Samut Songkhram provinces.
However, the reality is somewhat different. Devastating “leaks” of industrial pollutants into our rivers and watercourses will continue for as long as the “leaky taps” of regulation and law enforcement remain unfixed.
The mass death of stingrays is just the tip of a wider pollution crisis in Thailand that is proving one of the biggest and most difficult environmental problems to solve.
Pollution as become an everyday fact of life in urban areas and industrial zones, where residents will often tolerate the low-grade poisoning until the point where it takes a visible toll on their health.
The finger of blame is usually pointed at factories, but the truth is that ordinary citizens can be just as careless with reckless actions that pollute the communities in which they live.
However, in the case of polluting factories, carelessness is compounded by greed. Industrial polluters can reduce operational costs if they ditch expensive treatment processes and dump their waste directly into the environment.
This is where regulators should step in. But in the example of Rajburi Ethanol, local residents and environmental groups had been complaining about the factory’s misdeeds for more than 14 years – in vain. Regulatory agencies were only forced into action when the mass death of endangered stingrays made national headlines.
Cases of destruction of Thai ecosystems by greed and thoughtlessness are in fact too numerous to mention, but the 2013 oil spill in Rayong and the years of lead contamination in Kanchanaburi’s Klity Creek stand out.
Luckily, communities these days have growing awareness of their rights and means to protect themselves, while a core of good and honest civil servants is willing to do the job of regulating greedy business owners.
The legal system, too, offers strong tools to deal with polluters, including the Factory Act and the Enhancement and Conservation of National Environmental Quality Act.
But the sad fact remains that the industrial polluters can usually count on their wealth and connections to fend off the law and punishment. The real power lies with money and influence, not with the law and its enforcers.
At root, this is a cultural problem. Most of us are willing to ignore wrongdoing if it is practised by our friends or if the bribe is high enough. The law is a secondary matter in these calculations.
The solution, however, lies in the hands of the authorities. It is they who are responsible for enforcing the rule of law by holding everyone – no matter how wealthy or influential – to its single d. Our task as citizens meanwhile is to acknowledge the difference between antisocial actions that ultimately damage everyone, and values that make life easier and fairer for all.

Following a discussion over the issue with relevant sectors, Tanasak said all systems must proceed as normal but televised programmes and dramas must instil knowledge and information about HM King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s great merits and royal activities for their |audiences.
Thais have been grieving since HM King Bhumibol Adulyadej passed away on October 13. With Thais now clad in black and white as a mark of respect, entertainment outlets have been forced to keep a low profile.
Government Spokesman Lt-General Sansern Kaewkamnerd said yesterday Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha understood that the economic sector needs to move ahead, so he has assigned Tanasak to discuss the issue with relevant sectors.
The government intends to allow all television stations to return to normal programming a month after the passing of the much-revered king.
“We believe all stations know how to gradually gear back to normal,” Sansern said.
Social pressure would automatically become active if any station hurt public feelings, he said.