Things may have come to a boil between the National Highways Authority of India and the Ministry of Environment and Forests over green clearances to road projects last week with the former going to court in protest, but they have been simmering for long enough. The NHAI has for long been demanding exemption from the Forest Rights Act for its road projects and now derives strength from the recent recommendations made by a Committee of Secretaries on the issue.

Chaired by the Law Secretary, this committee — specifically examining the NHAI’s demand vis-a-vis the ministry’s contentions — gave an opinion in favour of the NHAI. The committee has opined that the FRA may not be insisted upon as far as road projects are concerned.

Long-term lenders like IIFCL and IDBI Bank are unlikely to fund road projects where land acquisition is incomplete, a move that could scuttle plans to award projects of 8,000 km this fiscal year. Lenders and builders have approached the finance ministry, road ministry and NHAI, insisting that road contracts should not be awarded without all clearances in place.

“We are not taking up new projects unless 100% land acquisition is done. We are taking up the issue with NHAI,” IIFCL chairman SK Goel told FE. “We feel other lenders will follow suit,” he added.

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) may black list GMR Infrastructure from bidding for highways projects on the grounds that the company allegedly terminated a contract unilaterally wit

Stung by the “abrupt and unilateral” walkout of the GMR Group from the 555-km-long Kishangarh-Udaipur-Ahmedabad National Highway project alleging delays in approvals, the ministry of road transport

The Legal Initiative for Forests and Environment disputed the claims of the National Highway Authority of India that has moved the Supreme Court for fast-track clearance of delayed highway projects.

Elaborating upon the Forest Advisory Committee meeting held in December 2012, Ritwick Dutta, environmental lawyer and member of LIFE said, “From the 29 projects put up for clearance, the FAC cleared as many as 17. Three of these proposals were from the NHAI and while two were cleared, one was sent back on the ground that they wanted more information.”

The decision by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to move the Supreme Court seeking exemption for delinking environment and forest approvals for road projects had the approval of the Prime Ministers Office (PMO), it has emerged.

Government sources in the know say that the PMO’s approval came in a meeting held on October 31, 2012. The meeting was chaired by Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister Pulok Chatterji and attended by representatives from NHAI, and the ministries of road transport, environment and law.

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) on Wednesday moved the Supreme Court seeking modification of its guidelines mandating forest clearance prior to environmental clearance, saying the related procedures have delayed and stalled 22 important projects worth over R20,000 crore.

The highway authority has also sought a direction to the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) to modify its office memoranda (OM) of March and April 2011 so as to delink the two clearances in respect of widening of national highways.

The National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) has decided to carry out four-laning of the Parwanoo-Shimla section of the NH-22 under a single project, instead of two separate projects as planned earlier. As per the decision, the Rs 808 crore project for the Parwanoo-Solan section and Rs 1,800 crore project for the Solan-Shimla section had been combined into a single project which would cost Rs 1,786 crore.

The decision was taken after work on the four-laning of Parwanoo-Solan was delayed due to redesigning of the project to change the alignment of some portions to avoid large-scale demolition of commercial and residential structures along the road.

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.

NHAI likely to take ministry to SC today for ‘failing to comply with delinking order’

The tussle between the environment ministry and the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) over who caused the alleged delays in approvals in highway projects came to a head on Tuesday with the NHAI threatening to take the ministry to the Supreme Court on Wednesday, accusing it of failure to comply with an earlier court directive to de-link forest and environmental clearances.