The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has issued comprehensive guidelines that make plantation and landscaping integral to National Highway development and to project completion. The measures require that median and avenue plantation be carried out in accordance with contract terms and the Green Highways Policy, 2015, IRC:SP:21-2009 and other relevant ministry and NHAI directives. A key provision introduces a minimum threshold for issuance of the Provisional Certificate of Completion and Provisional Commercial Operation Date, requiring plantation on at least eighty per cent of the available Right of Way (ROW) earmarked for planting with a minimum survival rate of ninety per cent at the time of official inspection.

The guidelines require that any shortfall beyond the eighty per cent threshold be documented with specific timelines for completion and that appropriate financial withholdings provided under the relevant contract or concession agreement will be enforced until targets are met. This compliance requirement applies to projects during construction and at provisional certification stages and aims to ensure contractual obligations are not overlooked. NHAI has emphasised that plantation works must adhere to prescribed species, spacing and maintenance standards to achieve uniformity along highway corridors.

Plantation maintenance obligations have been strengthened during the operations and maintenance (O&M) period, with release of O&M and annuity payments in Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC), Hybrid Annuity Mode (HAM) and Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) Annuity projects tied to a sustained ninety per cent survival rate. Assessment of maintenance compliance in BOT-Toll projects will follow the same standard. NHAI will withhold payments or apply contractual remedies where survival standards are not maintained.

The guidelines mandate timely replacement of plant casualties with specimens of similar age and growth to preserve density and continuity. Prior to processing payments or certifying maintenance compliance, NHAI will seek verification by an environment and plantation expert engaged to confirm field-level conformity with survival standards. The rerevised measures are intended to integrate environmental sustainability and plantation management into the core implementation and maintenance framework of National Highway projects.