Rs 5,000 cr for green national highways

The Centre will spend around Rs 5,000 crore to provide green cover to the country’s national highways network in the next five years under the Green Highways Policy.

Unveiling the Green Highways (Plantation, Transplantation, Beautification and Maintenance) Policy on Tuesday, Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said the government has made it mandatory to set aside one per cent of the total project cost of any highways contract to a Green Fund corpus for plantation. “We are committed to take highway projects worth Rs 5 lakh crore and one per cent of it — Rs 5,000 crore would be spent on plantation alongside the National Highways,” he said.