Udaipur-Ahmedabad h'way gets nod from FAC

In a major relief to the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) in Rajasthan, the Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) on February 4 granted clearance for widening of the Kishangarh-Udaipur-Ahmedabad highway. With the approval, work on the project is expected to begin soon.

The Committee, the statutory body for advising on forest clearances, has given the long pending nod for diversion of 78 hectare of forest land to widen the Kishangarh-Udaipur- Ahmedabad section of NH 79A, NH 79, NH 76 and NH8 from four lane to six lane in favour of NHAI.

The approval was granted after the concessionaire in the project, GMR, terminated its contract in the absence of forest clearance. A meeting was held on January 22 and the decision was finally taken on February 4 on the issue. The formal letter will be issued soon. The Ministry included certain mandatory provisions along with the permission but later even those were waived off.

Now, it is expected momentum in the project and are hopeful that GMR too will reconsider its decision, a senior NHAI official said. From the project, the authority will earn a revenue of Rs 636 crore annually, which is scheduled to increase 5 per cent every successive year.

India's first mega highway project was marred with a lot of controversies. The apathy shown by the Forest Department officials of Rajasthan government in passing the file to the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) was slated to be prime reason for delay. The state government submitted its report on tree counting and inspection of the area to the ministry after sleeping over it for more than 15 months.