An industrial estate for toxic waste management could be located on state agency land instead of military property, with the Industry Ministry finding the most appropriate location, says Industry Minister Chakramon Phasukvanich.
Previously he said his ministry was on course to utilise unused military land for the toxic waste industrial estate in a bid to avoid conflicts with communities.
Using state agency land offers more choices, said Mr Chakramon.
The ministry will finalise the project details and start construction by mid-2015, with the goal of being ready to operate in 2017.
"It could even be deforested areas," Mr Chakramon said.
He reasoned the industrial estate would require a large space of at least 10,000 rai to control emissions from treatment and prevent contaminating the area.
Some 5,000 rai would be used for a waste management space and another 5,000 as a buffer zone to prevent emissions from the treatment process from leaking to outer areas.
Mr Chakramon said the project could be funded by the Industrial Estate Authority of Thailand (IEAT), private companies or a public-private partnership.
The ministry has met with the Defence Industrial and Royal Forestry departments about potentially using their land.
IEAT governor Veerapong Chaiperm said his agency was considering establishing three toxic waste industrial estates, one each in a western, eastern and central province, the better to serve factories and remove logistics hurdle.
The project's investment budget is estimated at between 10-15 billion baht per project.
The estates will be able to offer treatment for up to 20 years.
Mr Veerapong said Japan's New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization expressed interested in investing in a toxic waste project, as had industrial land operator Amata Plc.
The industrial sector produces 30 million tonnes of waste a year, with 3 million tonnes of that toxic waste, but only one-third of the toxic waste a year can be traced to treatment systems.