Jharkhand High Court will now monitor the progress of construction and widening of Ranchi- Jamshedpur Highway. A Division Bench of Justice Virender Singh and Justice S Chandrasekhar, while hearing a PIl initiated suo-moto on trees being cut haphazardly to widen roads across the State on Wednesday, asked the State Government to give it in writing that how many kilometers of construction will be covered on monthly or quarterly basis so that the progress could be monitored by the court itself on regular basis.
“Just tell us that when the work of first 50 km of stretch of Ranchi-Jamshedpur Road will be started,” asked the Court. Also file an affidavit about the status of construction work on all the four national highways in the State within a week, it added.
The court was also interested to know how many trees will be cut and at how many places.
The court also asked National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) counsel to get in touch with its experts and give it in writing that how many kilometers will be covered by them on quarterly or monthly basis.
“The court will monitor the progress of work on regular basis,” said the court. The court also expressed concerned over the stranded heavy vehicles and construction machineries on the Ranchi-Jamshedpur highway resulting to accidents of innocent people.
“NHAI never bothered to put any caution for those who are travelling on it putting their life in danger,” it added. The Chief Justice also wanted to know why the construction work was stopped despite the fact that the contract period was of 3 years.
Clarifying its prior order in this regard, the court said that it never said that trees should not be cut down for construction purposes, rather it asked them to relocate wherever it was possible and where it was not possible cut them with a precondition that the guidelines issued by Supreme Court in this regard must be followed.
A news report published in a local Hindi daily on June 23, 2014, had triggered the PIl in the year 2014. The report said road construction department cut thousands of trees but did not plant saplings.
Till date, 29,702 tress are said to have been cut down to widen roads to facilitate constructions and widening of Ranchi-Jamshedpur Highway.