Nitin Gadkari asks Environment Ministry to expedite green nod to projects

Noting that total 187 major highway projects are stuck for want of environmental clearances, Union Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari has asked the Ministry of Environment and Forests to expedite granting approval for infrastructure projects.

Chairing a high-level meeting on infrastructure here on Tuesday, the Minister raised the issue of pending forest clearance for 187 highway projects.

He also noted that many projects had not yet applied for Stage II forest clearance.

Union Minister for Railways and Commerce Piyush Goyal, Union Minister for Environment, Forests and Prakash Javadekar, and Union Minister of State for Road Transport & Highways V K Singh participated in the meeting through video conference.

In the meeting, Gadkari asked Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar to direct the forest officers posted in states to follow and implement the circulars and orders issued by the environment ministry.

“Special High powered committees on forest issues can be conducted as is being done in Jharkhand, Maharashtra and Arunachal Pradesh. It was felt that this step will remove many hindrances in the way of infrastructure projects, which will save both time and money,” the transport ministry said in a statement.

A major issue before infrastructure projects is tree cutting, however, there are ambiguities over the inclusion of certain local breeds of shrubs and plants in forest cover, the ministry added.

The meeting was also attended by Railway Board Chairman V K Yadav senior officers of the ministries of road transport, power environment and forests, NHAI and representatives from the state governments of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka.

In the meeting, it was decided that level crossings on National Highways need to be removed, as they constitute major accident spots. It was pointed out that while their designs had been approved at 167 locations, but the work has not yet started. MoUs were signed in this respect over 5 years ago, and there is a need to improve performance. In this direction, it was agreed to monitor the projects under Setubharatam programme on a monthly basis. It also was underlined that 30 road projects are pending with railways. However, the railway minister assured to resolve these within two days, the statement said.