Local opposition crashes Chiang Mai cable car plan

CHIANG MAI: -- The government has been forced to abandon plans to construct a cable car up Doi Luang Chiang Dao mountain in the northern province of Chiang Mai after running up against fierce local opposition.

Professing himself ‘tired’ with trying to fight for the scheme, Mr. Plodprasop Surasawadee,advisor to the prime minister and former permanent secretary for natural resources and the environment, said today that the project had now been shelved.

The government’s decision to abandon the project means that the Bt5 million paid to conduct a feasibility study has effectively been wasted.

Not only conservationists, but also local businesspeople, academics, artists, students and monks opposed the cable car plans, and consistently called for projects which would promote sustainable tourism on the mountain instead.

--TNA 2005-03-20

The government’s decision to abandon the project means that the Bt5 million paid to conduct a feasibility study has effectively been wasted.

Define wasted. I'm sure the connected relative whose feasibility study company performed this research feels that the five million baht was money well spent.