The Rs 12,000-cr Char Dham highway widening is one of the pet projects of the Prime Minister’s Office
The National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Monday stayed felling of trees for the Prime Minister's pet project of Chardham highway widening. The principal bench comprising of Justices Jawad Rahim and SP Wangdi and expert member Nagin Nanda issued the directions to Centre and Uttarakhand government while hearing a plea filed by Citizens for Green Doon. The NGT had admitted the plea on February 28 and had sought replies to it from the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH), Uttarakhand government and Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC).
The plea has alleged that work on the Chardham highway widening project is being executed without following due procedure to obtain forest clearances and in the absence of a single, consolidated environmental impact assessment (EIA) for the entire length of the project. The petitioners alleged that to bypass the mandatory requirement of preparing an EIA report for the project, the Centre and state have divided clearance proposals in various segments.
In its affidavit to the NGT, the MoEF&CC has unwittingly admitted to the petitioner's contention. The ministry said that they have not received any proposals seeking forest clearance under the name of 'Chardham Mahamarg Vikas Pariyojna' but "cases from MoRTH have been submitted by Uttarakhand government along the stretch of Chardham in Uttarakhand for different segments for diversion of forest land." The Centre, in fact, has officially termed the project as 'Chardham Mahamarg Vikas Pariyojna'.
The ministry added that its regional office in Dehradun has appraised 24 such projects, of which 16 were granted in-principle approval, three cases have been granted final approval and the rest are pending due to want of corrections and documents. Thus, as per the ministry's affidavit, they have allowed diversion of 475.11 hectares of forest land that involves felling of 26,461 trees till date. A total of 508.66 hectares of forest land has been sought for diversion through these 24 proposals, involving felling of 29,818 trees.
The MoRTH, which is the project proponent, did not file any response to the affidavit while Uttarakhand government denied allegations made in the petition. It said that widening of roads is being done by adopting mitigating measures such as compensatory afforestation, suitable soil and moisture conservation works and slope stabilizations.
The Char Dham highway widening is one of the pet projects of the Prime Minister's Office (PMO). The Rs.12,000 crore project involves widening of 900kms of existing highways to provide all-weather connectivity between the Hindu pilgrimage sites of Badrinath, Kedarnath, Yamunotri and Gangotri.
KNOW THE PROJECT
- The Rs 12,000-cr Char Dham highway widening is one of the pet projects of the Prime Minister’s Office.
- It nvolves widening of 900 kms of highways to provide all-weather connectivity between Hindu pilgrimage sites of Badrinath, Kedarnath, Yamunotri and Gangotri.
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 "Chardham road work")
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