"The government must do it even if it means a huge budget," Dr Samphan Singharachawaraphan, the head of an earthquake research centre in the North, said.

If a quake with a magnitude of more than six on the Richter scale occurs within a 10-kilometre radius of the dam it could collapse, said Samphan.

He also urged public-works officials to strictly inspect high-rise buildings in Tak, Chiang Mai, Kanchanaburi and Mae Hong Son because they were in areas that would likely be affected by earthquakes triggered by local fault lines.

His warning came after a powerful quake shook the Indonesian island of Java on Monday.

Samphan said the fault line in Java is linked to Sakaeng fault line in Burma, which also divides into three sub-fault lines in Kanchanaburi and Tak provinces.

"If the main fault line shakes, the sub-fault lines will see severe impacts," he said.

The Nation