SC nod for Chennai-Salem expressway land acquisition

Justices Krishna Murari, B R Gavai, and A.M Khanwilkar allowed the Centre on Tuesday to go ahead with land acquisition the Chennai-Krishnagiri-Salem eight-lane expressway, paving the way for the Rs 10,000 crore. The project is under the Bharatmala project.

The Supreme Court held that the government was free to create a new highway or notify any land as a highway to secure a social order in the concerned region as well as to promote the welfare of the people.

The Supreme Court said that the central government is free to construct or build a new national highway, also including the provisioning of new economic opportunities in the area through which the national highway would pass.

Under the 1956 Act, a self-contained code, the government had claimed that before the beginning of the project, the acquisition process initiated was wholly independent and cannot be fused with formalities and procedures.

Approved in February 2018, the project was expected to cut down travel time between Salem and Chennai to under four hours.

The Bharatmala Pariyojana Phase I plans 24,800 km at an estimated outlay of Rs 535,000 crore spanning five years of work, from 2017-18 to 2021-22.

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