With the Supreme Court’s decision on March 12, about 2,500 km highway projects valued at about Rs 25,000 crore which were stuck pending environment clearances, can now move forward. the apex court permitted de-linking of environment clearance from forest clearance.
The companies whose projects will get a leg up include C&C Construction, Gammon, Coartal-SREI, Soma, Simplex Infra and PNC. The disputed project of Kishangarh-Udaipur-Ahmedabad highway, on which GMR and the National Highways Authority of India are trying to find an out-of-court solution, has also got the clearance.
Though the projects had Environment Ministry’s nod, the developers were unable to start work because from mid-2011 onwards the clearance involved approval from the forest department as well. In effect, work on highway development could not start even if there was a small stretch on which forest or tree-felling clearance was required.
The current ruling comes after the Environment Ministry moved the Supreme Court seeking de-linking of environment clearance from forest clearance for highway projects. Earlier this year, the NHAI had moved the Supreme Court on the issue, but withdrew the case after the Environment Ministry filed a petition on the same.
The issue escalated after highway developers started withdrawing from projects they had bid for, citing delay in clearances. With the Supreme CourtÂ’s decision, projects for developing over 2,500 km of highways will automatically get environment clearances. The cost of these projects is about Rs 20,000 crore as per the GovernmentÂ’s total project cost estimates, RP Singh, Chairman of NHAI said.
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