Govt delinks green nod from road,rail projects

Putting an end to the face-off between the National Highways Authority of India and Ministry of Environment & Forests,the latter has delinked environmental and forest clearances in case of all linear projects like roads,transmission lines,rail tracks. The Supreme Court’s Forest Bench last week allowed the MoEF to modify the 2011 norms,which were based on the apex court’s verdict in the Lafarge case.

Modifying its September 9,2011 guidelines,the MoEF has issued a fresh office memorandum,dated March 19,2013,saying that pending forest and environment clearance to a linear project may be granted,provided it is ‘explicitly certified’ by the user agency that in case the forest clearance for the non-forest use of forest land falling in the alignment does not come by,the user agency will shift to a “technically feasible” alternative alignment that will not intrude on forest land. The modified guidelines clarify that commencement of work on non-forest land along the alignment will not confer any right to the user agency regarding approval under the Forest Conservation Act,1980.

For projects involving widening or expansion of existing national highways,while work will be permitted to begin on non-forest land,the user agency has been asked to submit an undertaking stating that in case forest clearance is denied for expansion of the highway — where it traverses through forest land — the road along forest portions will not be widened and maintained at existing width.

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The MoEF says it received representations from various stakeholders to delink the clearances for linear projects involving patches of forest land along their alignment,often stretching to several hundred kilometres.

The road transport ministry has been at loggerheads with the MoEF over alleged delays in granting of clearance and blamed it for slow progress in projects worth over Rs 2,000 crore. With GMR recently terminating the concession agreement with NHAI for the 555-km Kishangarh-Udaipur-Ahmedabad project over delayed environmental and forest clearances,things worsened between the two ministries.