Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwon has put the brakes on an expansion project for Highway No.12 which will cut through Nam Nao National Park in Phetchabun.
Speaking after chairing a meeting of the National Environment Board (NEB), he said the expansion project from two lanes to four lanes of the section linking Lom Sak district of Phetchabun to Chum Phae district of Khon Kaen will pass through the watershed 1A protected zone.
As a result, he has asked the Highways Department, the project owner, to review the project and study whether there are other alternatives for the part that passes through the sensitive forest zone despite the fact the project's environment impact assessment (EIA) has been approved, said Gen Prawit.
"We [Thailand] have lost too many forest areas and wildlife so we should try to hang on to what we can," said the deputy prime minister.
This instruction did not mean the project would be scrapped but the NEB wants more options and no time frame has been set down for the study.
The decision to put the brakes on the project comes after environmentalists including the Seub Nakhasathien Foundation raised concerns that the project would threaten the ecology and environment in Nam Nao National Park.
The group said the EIA report lacked transparency as the information had never been disclosed to the public.
It said the expansion of the road from two to four lanes will harm ecology and wildlife even though the EIA report said there will be five elevated-wildlife corridors with a length of 500 metres each as walkways for animals to cross the road.
"We are not really sure that the wildlife corridor mitigation plan works," Panudet Kerdmali, the foundation's secretary-general said.
"The board should suspend considering the project as there is no guarantee the corridors will help reduce accidents involving those animals," he said.
The 104km Highway No.12 linking Mae Sot in Tak and Mukdahan is designed to be a key East-West Corridor project.