DNA Money Edit: Balance road development and environment concerns

Hurdles in acquiring land is among the major reasons for various highway projects getting stuck during execution as well as in pre-implementation stages. As of April, as many as 67 national highway projects having a consolidated length of around 3,700 kilometre were stuck due to various reasons. Of this, 32 projects are due to want of land and 23 are awaiting financial closure even after having crossed the six-month period.

Forests or wildlife or eco-sensitive zones top the challenge chart followed by areas with human population. A lot has been debated on the merits and demerits of clearing forest areas for wider roads. With shrinking green cover, the debate will only get louder for decades to come. For example, last year decks were cleared to widen National Highway 17 by clearing part of Karnala Bird Sanctuary. Ecologically fragile western ghats, too, have been on the radar for country’s “development”.

Unless stern and effective measures like having wildlife crossings or wildlife tunnels aren’t considered, superficial transplantation of trees that eventually die out and compensatory plantation will continue to remain insufficient and impractical solution.  On several occasions, environmental obligations are also seen as a burden by project executors. To top it, government supervision also lacks on these fronts. The end result is losing out on the environmental front, which, in turn, means more opposition in securing green clearances and more time to execute a project, which has its direct impact on slower highway construction rate or stuck projects.