The Supreme Court today gave an order de-linking forest clearance from environment clearance for linear projects. The order is likely to benefit as many as 25 road projects and could facilitate investments of around Rs 25000 crore in the next fiscal, reports Rituparna Bhuyan of CNBC-TV18 quoting sources.
In a case involving Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) and road regulator National Highway Authority of India (NHAI), the apex court said that there was no need for concessionaires to wait for forest clearance for widening roads. Road sector needs nodal dispute resolution authority: CARE Couple of years back, the Supreme Court while passing an order on Lafarge cement plant in Meghalaya had stated that environmental clearance should be given only after forest clearance is given. After that the environment ministry had started linking environment clearance to forest clearance and as a result several linear projects including road projects got stuck. While the road projects used to have environment clearance, they could not go ahead with project until forest clearance was received. Because of this they were not able to start the work in non-forest areas as well. As a result NHAI had waged a war against MoEF by filling a petition in the apex court demanding to separate forest and environment clearance. The supreme court’s order is likely to kick start several road project which had got stuck due to linkage of forest and environmental clearance.Discover the latest Business News, Sensex, and Nifty updates. Obtain Personal Finance insights, tax queries, and expert opinions on Moneycontrol or download the Moneycontrol App to stay updated!
