The government has said plans to construct a road through the Serengeti National Park (Senapa) are still on course despite emerging opposition from environmental lobbyists and conservationists.

Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism Shamsa Mwangunga pointed out that the government is obliged to fulfil a campaign promise, made by President Jakaya Kikwete in 2005, that the fourth phase administration under CCM would complete construction of the $480 (Sh372 billion) Arusha-Musoma road.

The 480km road hit a snag in the past, following concern over a requirement that a section of it would pass through the park, famous for its spectacular annual migration of millions of wildlife into Kenya's Maasai Mara game reserve.

The wildlife migration attracts hundreds of tourists every year, earning Tanzania and Kenya millions of shillings in foreign exchange.

Campaigners are warning that the opening up of Senapa to commercial traffic would be disastrous because the proposed 53km of road through the world-acclaimed wilderness would jeopardise the animal trek and dent the park's ranking as one of the world's leading tourist attraction.

Some of the lobbyists, including Wildlife Conservation Society of Tanzania, are now planning to hold meetings and raise petitions to persuade the government to go for an alternative route around the park and leave Serengeti untouched.

"The Wildlife Conservation Society of Tanzania (WCST) is soliciting support from Environmental NGOs to form a coalition which will conduct a campaign to avert the construction of a commercial highway through this critical part of the Serengeti," said the society in an email communication.

"Every able person should join in condemning this destructive proposal which undermines hard gains and conservation achievements of sustaining this natural and cultural gift to humanity. There is no alternate to the Serengeti but there are many alternative areas for building an effective road system. We therefore call for common sense to prevail so as not to allow the construction of the road through the narrow northern part of the Serengeti National Park!! The road should be routed through the alternate southern end of the Park," the statement added.

But in a quick government reaction to campaigns among local and international groups that got underway over two weeks ago to oppose the project, Ms Mwangunga dismissed growing fears that the road would interfere with the Serengeti eco-system.

In an interview with The Citizen this week, the minister said the main reason the road connecting Arusha-Musoma was considered was because of the need to satisfy public interests. She said the construction of the road wouldn't disturb the popular annual wildlife migration as claimed by the campaigners.

Seeking to allay fears, she said the road, which would link Serengeti- Loliondo districts with the national grid of major roads, won't cut cross Senapa but would be routed in a manner that won't affect wildlife migration patterns.

Work on the project, according to Mr Deusdedit Kakoko, who is the regional manager for Tanzania Roads Agency (Tanroads), will begin early 2012. A feasibility study is currently underway, he said. Users currently loop more than 418km to the south to skirt the protected Serengeti.

"Those criticising the road construction know nothing about what we've planned...We're all keen to preserve our natural resources...We'll never compromise on that," declared Ms Mwangunga.

She said an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) showed that the project was feasible before it was included in the government's 10 years Transport Sector Improvement Program (TSIP).

According to the minister, only an unpaved 40-mile stretch of the two-lane tarmac road would pass through the national park. This, she insisted, won't carry any threat to the annual movement of tens of thousands of wildebeest, between the Mara and Serengeti watering grounds, as suggested by the activists.

The critics, however, point out that the idea to build the road was first mooted 20 years ago and was later shelved over concerns it would cause environmental degradation, after the World Bank turned down a funding request on the basis of recommendations by an EIA.

They point out that increasing traffic "might become the highest risk to the wildebeest migration and the integrity of the Serengeti as the number one natural wonder of the world upon which Tanzania's tourism depends."

The new standoff is threatening to thrust the country into yet another potentially damaging international environmental conservation storm. It is a stark reminder of the recent controversy generated by the failed attempt to sell 90 tonnes of its ivory stockpiles worth about $15 million (Sh19.5 billion).

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) conference in Qatar, in March, threw out a Tanzania's request to sell the ivory following a fierce campaign by other member countries.

They argued that allowing a one-off sale could bring back poaching of the African elephant. Zambia also lost a similar appeal during the same meeting.

The government has since indicated its intention to file a fresh appeal so that it may be allowed to sell the stockpile, even though this might have to probably wait for at least seven more years.