Wednesday, October 14, 2015

Government plans green road corridors

The Union government is all set to unveil its Green Highways policy on September 29th this year under which bushes and trees will be grown along all the highways in aphased manner.
Highlights:
  • The purpose of the policy is to promote the greening of highway corridors with the participation of the local community, including local contractors and the local Forest Department.
  • The plan is to grow three layers of trees and bushes. The first will be of bushes so that if a vehicle goes off the road, it does not collide with something life-threatening. The second will be of medium-sized trees and the last will be of tall fruit trees. However point to be noted that, only species indigenous to the area would be planted.
  • The investment would be 1,000 crore this year, calculated as one per cent of the Rs. 1,00,000-crore investment in national highway projects this year.
  • The project will be awarded to contractors in small stretches of 8-10 km as pilot scheme.
  • Those who are eligible among the wide cross-section of agencies that can participate in the project, include government or private companiesNGOs registered as societiestrusts or private limited non-profit companies, andproducer organizations.
  • Furthermore, the government has laid down strict targets for the companies growing and maintaining trees such as only after reaching the minimum survival rate i.e. 90 per cent implementation, a company will get the required money from the Ministry in the next year.

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