Green cover and water bodies almost equal to a quarter (23%) of Delhi’s area have been lost to development works and rabid urbanization in the National Capital Region (NCR) in the past 13 years.

The first comparative satellite-based study of change in land use in NCR has shown that between 1999 and 2012, the region lost 32,769 hectares of green areas and 1,464 hectares of water bodies, both crucial for sustainability and quality of life in the region.

Expansion Of Highway Stretches Up To 100km Now Easier

In a major relief to highway widening projects, the Cabinet on Thursday allowed exemption of environmental clearance requirement for stretches up to 100 km in length. Earlier, this was for stretches up to 30 km, as a result of which most expansion projects required green nod from the environment ministry.

New Delhi: Buying big cars across states would be cheaper soon as the Centre is likely to decide uniform “lifetime” road tax for cars, taxis and two wheelers.

New Delhi: A controversy seems to be in the making between the urban development (UD) ministry and the road transport ministry on specifications of low-floor buses with both coming up with their ow

New Delhi:The finance ministry has relaxed norms for appraising and approving highway projects up to Rs 500 crore by the road transport and highways ministry, a move that will boost awarding of pub

New Delhi: States from southern and western India like Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Maharashtra seem to be taking the lead in getting approval for more projects under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urb

NEW DELHI: The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has directed the Haryana government to ensure no "non-forest" activity is carried out in the forest areas of three villages - Kot, Mangar and Roz-ka-Gujjar — falling under Aravali. The tribunal has also restrained any commercial activity in Sikandarpur Ghosi village in Gurgaon, where green areas have been turned into a marble market.

"We hereby restrain carrying on of any commercial activity by construction of sheds or even the industrial activity including the sale and purchase of marble, liquor and gas warehouses in the village Sikandarpur Ghosi till the next date of hearing (February 7)," said the tribunal bench headed by Justice Swatanter Kumar that clubbed petitions pertaining to unauthorized activities in the forest areas.

New Delhi: National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) expects to build at least 2,800-2,900 km highways under the NH Development Programme during 2012-13, which will be the highest ever completion in the authority’s history. The maximum NH construction record so far has been 2,693 km in 2009-10, sources said.

According to officials, the highways minister C P Joshi has asked the authority to achieve its internal target of 3,000 km by March-end and to expedite construction on small pending stretches so that large corridors can be brought under “completion” category. “Issues relating to every under construction stretch was discussed on Tuesday and Wednesday at the highest level where top NHAI and highway ministry officials were present,” said a source.

The urban development ministry has issued fresh guidelines to all states to install preventive security apparatus in all modes of public transport –– buses, taxis and autorickshaws ––for safe travel of women and children. The circular, which stressed on installation of two cameras inside buses, was issued on Monday in the light of the recent gang rape in the national Capital.

Highlighting the unreliability of public transport in cities, UD secretary Sudhir Krishna said in his letter, “Presently, most of the cities in India do not have reliable, comfortable, quick and affordable public transport. However, in big cities, the public transport provided lacks in availability of frequency, extent of coverage and adequate safety measures.”

20 Highway Contracts Stuck Due To Red Tape Over Environmental Norms

New Delhi: The National Highways Authority of India has decided to approach the Supreme Court against the environment ministry’s norms as a series of projects are held up due to green clearances. While infrastructure major GMR has already announced its exit from Rs 7,500 crore highway project, there are at least 20 highways contracts — each worth over Rs 1,000 crore — that have been awarded by NHAI but there fate remains unclear as the environment ministry is sitting over forest clearances. The projects have cleared one hurdle of getting environmental approvals but work cannot start until a green signal on the forest side is also received.