PHETCHABURY: Fifty residents of Ban Lat and Muang district submitted a petition to the Department of Highways on Tuesday against plans to press ahead with a 79-billion-baht motorway project.
The move came after department director-general Anon Luangboriboon said at the weekend the project was being proposed to the cabinet for approval, and that he was determined to get the stamp of approval from the current government.
The residents, along with a local environment advocacy group calling itself Phetchaburi Environment Conservation Group, said the 119-kilometre Nakhon Pathom-Cha-am (M8) would seriously impact the environment and local communities as well as a major agricultural area that serves as a main source of income for people in Phetchaburi.
Latda Phuangtaeng, 57, who lives in tambon Rai Sathon in Ban Lat district, said villagers thought the project had already been scrapped due to vehement opposition by the affected parties.
At previous forums organised to gauge public opinion toward the project, affected villagers had vented their opposition to the project and thought their voices had been heard, she said.
"We want them to change the route of the motorway, otherwise a huge area of sugar palm plantations and paddy fields will be destroyed. Villagers in this area mainly rely on the sugar palm plantations for their income," she said.
"We have submitted numerous petitions against this project and we didn't think they wanted to go ahead with it. We have always been strongly opposed to it."
The chief of Phetchaburi Highway District received the petition and said he would forward it to the department for consideration. The sugar palm plantations the new motorway will cut through are also a symbol of the province, said Chamlong Wilailoet, a coordinator at the Phetchaburi Environment Conservation Group.
It will also cut across a floodway running from the mountain range to the sea, he said.