A LARGE Phuket building project suffered a seismic shock of sorts at a meeting of the Governor's special environmental approvals committee yesterday.

A consultant for the Phanason Green Place project, which has begun construction of 1407 condominiums in Phuket City, was told the three-billion baht project is on what might prove to be an earthquake fault line.

The buildings are in a valley that was formed when a mountain split in two, according to Phuket geologists. As a result, the base stone in the centre of the valley is softer than surrounding stone, higher up on the two halves of the original mountain.

The committee wants soil tests and seismic studies carried out to a depth of 200 metres by a specialist firm, Applied Industrial Technologies. Building is continuing.

The head of the committee, Dr Somchai Sakultap, said he understood that this kind of investigation would not have been considered necessary by any property developer.

But he said that soil tests were often not sufficient for areas on Phuket where there was a long-ago history of ground movement.

Jungceylon in Patong was an example, Dr Somchai said.

Special underpinning was required there into hard stone, which meant the foundation pilings for the multi-billion baht lifestyle centre, initially thought to be adequate at 22 metres, actually had to be drilled to 35 metres.

Parts of Phuket had been subjected to earthquakes in the distant past and the island was considered part of the notorious ''Ring of Fire.''

Phanason's plan includes blocks of eight stories, some of which are already under construction. The committee's concern relates primarily to future development across an adjacent hillside.

The governor's special environmental committee was established on August 17 to oversee all project approvals for Phuket. Phanason has three property projects scheduled for the island and is one of Phuket's largest investors.

Volcanoes and earthquake fault lines, stretching from Alaska in North America, down to South America and across the Pacific to Indonesia and up to Japan, have earned the name the ''Ring of Fire''.