Green Highway: Rs 5000 crore earmarked for project

The government intends to take up road projects worth Rs 1 lakh crore in a year and 1 per cent of it – Rs 1,000 crore will be spent for tree plantation along National Highways.

The policy is aimed at “greening of highway corridors with the participation of the community, farmers, private sector, NGOs, and government institutions”, the statement said.

Union Minister of Road Transport & Highways and Shipping Nitin Gadkari launched the Green Highways (Plantation, Transplantation, Beautification & Maintenance) Policy, 2015 here today. Gadkari also promised to introduce electric bikes, scooters and buses in Indian market within two years.

He said at least 5 lakh rural youth would gain employment under the scheme.

“The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and Airports Authority of India’s Global Positioning System Aided Geo Augmented Navigation-GAGAN and BHUVAN would be used to map the plants and hence payments would be released strictly on the basis of survival rates. Every planted tree will be counted and auditing will be done”. The policy calls for setting aside 1 per cent of the total project cost towards a national plantation fund, thereby taking care of the resource requirement.

Stressing that there is no conflict between road development projects and the preservation of environment, Gadkari said that as far as possible the emphasis would be on transplanting trees instead of simply cutting these down.

Road Transport and Highways Secretary Vijay Chhibber said the forest cover at present was only at 22 percent of the land mass out of desired 33 percent and the policy would play a pivotal role in bridging the gap of 11 percent. He also asked the state governments to start programmes on similar lines.

He also said all expressways and access-controlled highways would be built as green highways and the government may extend this green policy to other schemes such as Prime Minister Gramin Vikas Yojana for a greener India.

Overall, it fits into the country’s Green India Mission and is capable of quantifying the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in a sustained manner.