SC allows Centre, NHAI to go ahead with 8-lane Chennai-Salem expressway

The court allowed the Centre to issue a fresh notification for land acquisition but after complying with all environmental norms

The Supreme Court on Tuesday held that the Union government was free to notify any land as highway or create a new highway for securing a social order and promotion of welfare of the people in the concerned region.

A bench of Justices A M Khanwilkar, B R Gavai and Krishna Murari allowed the Centre to go ahead with Rs 10,000-crore Chennai-Krishnagiri-Salem eight-lane expressway under the 'Bharatmala Pariyojana'.

"The central government is fully competent to notify “any land” (not necessarily an existing road/highway) for acquisition, to construct a highway to be a national highway," the court said.

It set aside a Madras High Court's order of 2019 that quashed notification under the National Highways Act, 1956, proposing acquisition of land for the project.

"The central government is free to construct or build a new national highway... so as to empower the people of that area including provisioning new economic opportunities in the area through which the national highway would pass and the country’s economy as a whole," the court said.

"The availability of a highway in any part of the State paves way for sustainable development and for overall enhancement of human well-being including to facilitate the habitants there at to enjoy a decent quality of life, creation of assets (due to natural increase in market value of their properties) and to fulfil their aspirations of good life by provisioning access to newer and present-day opportunities," the court added.

The top court's judgement came on a batch of petitions filed by the Union government and the National Highways Authority of India.

The court, however, agreed with the High Court that until the acquisition process was completed and possession of land was taken, the question of altering the mutation entry merely on the basis of notification cannot be countenanced.

Going through the 1956 Act, the court said there was nothing, which impelled the central government to obtain prior environment clearance before exercise of the power expressing its intention to acquire the designated land.

The court said, however, it would be open to the executing agency, NHAI, to make an application for environmental clearance, alongside the acquisition process.

The Union government claimed the acquisition process initiated under the 1956 Act, a self-contained code, was completely independent and cannot be fusioned with the formalities and procedure before commencement of the project.

The 277.30 km highway faced stiff opposition from activists, farmers and residents alleging loss of agricultural land and damage to forest, flora and fauna.

The project, approved in February, 2018, was expected to cut down travel time between Chennai and Salem. The land owners claimed the state government was keen on developing Chennai-Madurai section and Chennai-Salem was not part of the original Bharatmala Pariyojna-project Phase I.

The high court, in its judgement on April 8, 2019 on a batch of writ petitions by P V Krishnamoorthy and others, including PMK leader A Ramadoss, said the projection on benefits of the highway were illusory.

In its 140-page judgement, the top court noted that the traffic from Chennai bound to Salem-Coimbatore and Pallakad, Kerala, currently used the Chennai Krishnagiri section of the Golden Quadrilateral (Chennai-Bengaluru) and the Krishnagiri-Salem section of the North-South corridor, congesting Chennai-Krishnagiri section.

The Bharamala Pariyojna Phase I was conceived after a scientific study as a comprehensive project at the macro (national) level for 24,800 kms in Phase I, spanning over a period of 5 years (2017-18 to 2021-22) at an estimated outlay of Rs 5,35,000 crores.