NHAI seeks modification from SC of 2 MoEF notices: Sources

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) moved Supreme Court against the environment ministry on Tuesday. The petition has been flied on two counts. One, the NHAI has sought modification of two orders of the environment ministry from March and April 2011.

These orders mandated that forest clearance should precede environmental clearance and according to NHAI this is the root cause of all, the problem of all the delays, reports CNBC-TV18’s Rituparna Bhuyan quoting sources. GMR-NHAI tiff may set rules for sectors, projects: Experts The second count submitted by the NHAI in its petition seeks a clarification from the Supreme Court on the Lafarge order as of July 2011. It was in this order that the Supreme Court had said that the forest clearance should precede environmental clearance. But NHAI says that this order should be applicable only for localised projects like mines or dams and not to linear projects because in linear projects like highways the situation is different. NHAI also says that the environment ministry orders actually precede the Supreme Court order on Lafarge, around 22 highway projects are stuck, no construction has started and highway contractors are now seeking termination. As far as GMR case is concerned, NHAI has been maintaining that it is the NHAI’s responsibility to arrange the environmental clearance for concessioners like GMR. Since the forest clearances have not come, the environmental clearance is pending and since the environmental clearance is pending developers like GMR have not been able to start construction and as a result they have given notices. GMR has already terminated the contract. Meanwhile, the Environment Ministry on its part has hit back at the NHAI over GMR terminating a highway contract. The Ministry says the highway regulator had submitted incomplete application regarding the project and the highway regulator is yet to get complete information. However, Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan told CNBC-TV18 that the ministry isn't aware of what is going on between GMR and NHAI. She reiterates that the Ministry has received information from Rajasthan but not from Gujarat.