Thai farmers and residents from four provinces unhappy about proposed motorway

About 100 affected residents and farmers, from the Phetchaburi, Samut Songkhram, Ratchaburi and Nakhon Pathom provinces, are demanding the Thai Department of Highways scrap their environmental impact statements and start again.

The protests are over the 109 kilometre Nakhon Pathom to Cha-am Motorway.

A seminar was held over the weekend called “The Future of Petchaburi and the Motorway to the South” to provide a voice for residents. Department of Highways representatives were at the meeting to respond to resident complaints.

Unhappy residents say they were concerned the project could harm the livelihoods of local residents living in the four provinces, complaining that it will cut through farmland which is relied on to make a living.

They pointed out that the project’s environmental impact statement was already expired, as it had been prepared more than five years previously. Many residents and farmers say they had never been approached about the proposal in the past and they had been ‘in the dark’ about the impact of the new motorway.

SOURCE: Bangkok Post