Looks like Chiang Rai is now officially in the earthquake zone.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/22Sep2007_news08.php

DISASTER MITIGATION / BUILDING REGULATIONS

New laws for quake-risk zones

THEERAWAT KHAMTHITA

Chiang Rai _ A ministerial regulation will soon be issued to require new buildings in 12 quake-risk provinces, including Bangkok and its surrounding areas, to be designed to withstand earthquakes. Worawoot Tantiwanit, senior expert of the Mineral Resources Department, said several provinces in Thailand, especially those located on soft clay, could be at risk from the ripple effects of distant earthquakes.

Buildings in those areas should therefore be quake-resistant, he told a regional seminar on natural disaster forecasting and hazard assessment at Mae Fah Luang University yesterday.

He said the Public Works and Town and Country Planning Department, under the Interior Ministry, had completed drafting the regulation, which is being reviewed by the Council of State, the government's legal arm.

Under the draft regulation, to be issued under the Buildings Control Act, new houses and buildings in 12 provinces identified as quake-prone have to be designed to withstand tremors.

Those provinces include Bangkok and its satellite provinces as well as some provinces in the central and northern regions such as Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai and Mae Hong Son.

Owners of old buildings in those provinces would not be obliged to comply with the regulation. However, they could improve their buildings to meet the earthquake safety standards on a voluntary basis, he said, adding that the construction costs of quake-resistant buildings was only 10% higher than that for ordinary buildings.

Dobbs: "If you're the inspectors, where are your building regulations?"

Thai official: "Building regulations!? We ain't got no building regulations. We don't need no building regulations! I don't have to show you any stinking building regulations!!"

From the Thai remake of "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre"