MoEF moves swiftly on clearances for shelved highway project

NEW DELHI: Less than a month after GMR Infrastructure walked out of the single-largest highway project in India citing delays in securing green clearances, the government has moved swiftly to grant environment clearance and taken steps to expedite forest clearances for the Rs 7,200 crore project.

Environment minister Jayanthi Natarajan has approved the file granting environmental clearance for the upgradation of the Kishangarh-Ahmedabad national highway stretch of 555.5 km, a government statement said. Moreover, the forest advisory committee met on January 21 and 22 to discuss the proposal on diverting forest land for the highway.

The committee’s recommendations are ‘being finalised’ , it said late on Tuesday. GMR had bagged the highway project in 2011, by quoting an aggressive premium of Rs 636 crore which it agreed to remit to the NHAI annually.

A fortnight after GMR decided to terminate its contract with the NHAI, GVK Infrastructure cited similar reasons to exit a Rs 5,500 crore highway project between Shivpuri and Dewas. NHAI chairman RP Singh had attributed these developers’ exit to the weak economic scenario and difficulty in raising equity for the projects.

While admitting that tardy environmental clearances have contributed to the cost escalations in the project, the NHAI and the road ministry are trying to ensure that developers don’t abandon projects.

While the NHAI has challenged the contract termination notices served by GMR and GVK, it had assured the developers that their concerns on environmental and forest clearances are being resolved expeditiously.