Flood : 420 Temples Affected In Ayutthaya

Office of Buddhism in central Ayutthaya province revealed today that recent flooding situation has affected 420 out of 505 temples across the province.

The office initially estimated that about 915 million baht (29. 8 million US dollars) would be needed for reconstruction and repairs of those temples.

Landscape improvements and paintings may take two to three months to finish but repairing some buildings may take up to one year, according to the office's official.

Ayutthaya, the former capital city of Thailand, was inscribed as the world historic city in 1991 by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The province which is also a home to several industrial estates has been severely ravaged by heavy floods since September. Thousands of factories including Honda and Toyota were submerged under floodwaters.

In October, UNESCO offered to allocate 25,000 US dollars of emergency assistant fund for restoring ancient sites in the province.

Although it continues to prevail in 24 provinces, the inundation in Ayutthaya has begun to subside.