In what could provide a great impetus to road building, the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) has said that NHAI could go ahead with highway projects without even obtaining forest clearance.
The MoEF concession will cover road, transmission lines and pipeline projects.
The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) will now be required to get forest clearance only for the project area falling within forest land. In case, MoEF denies such a clearance at a later stage when the work has already started, it will provide an alternate route for the project.
The concession forms part of an application filed by the MoEF in Supreme Court where it seeks the permission of the Court to modify the Forest Conservation Guidelines of March 31, 2011.
The guidelines required all projects passing through forest area to seek mandatory forest clearance. The amendment would now exempt linear projects (roads, transmission lines and pipelines) from the purview of the guidelines. However, projects falling in Protected Areas and Eco-Sensitive Zones around it will not enjoy this concession.
The NHAI had virtually declared war against the MoEF as more than 17 highway projects were kept in abeyance for grant of MoEF clearance. The uncertainty led several developers to consider a pull out.
Faced with this situation, the NHAI filed a separate petition in the apex court proposing that work should commence in non-forest areas.
With two Government departments at cross purposes, the Prime Minister’s Office intervened and on its advice the fresh application by the MoEF came to be filed. Simultaneously, the NHAI too has decided to withdraw its petition based on the fresh offer by the MoEF.
Explaining its amendment, the MoEF application filed through advocate Haris Beeran said: “The projects involving widening or upgradation of existing roads will be allowed to be executed on the entire stretch located in non-forest land, provided the user agency (developer) submits an undertaking that execution of work on non-forest land shall not be cited as a reason for grant of approval under the Act.”
This amendment will form part of modified paragraph 4.4 of the FC Guidelines. To avail of this concession, the developer has to supply a “technically feasible alternate alignment in case the forest clearance is not granted in any of the stretches (falling within the project area) requiring such clearance.”
This decision of the MoEF was conveyed to all States and Union Territories on January 7 this year. Justifying its decision to amend its Guidelines, the MoEF said, “The MoEF in consideration of representations received from various Ministries in the Central Government modified paragraph 4.4 of the FC Guidelines in respect of the linear projects involving use of forest land in part of their total length.”