DEHRADUN: The Ministry of Road, Transport and Highway (MORTH) in their affidavit submitted before the National Green Tribunal(NGT) in matter of Char Dham widening road in Uttarakhand stated that in all the total 53 projects/stretches of Char Dham, none is above 100 km which is why no environmental clearance was obtained. NGT bench headed by justice Jawed Rahim pulled up MORTH as well as state government on Wednesday for not furnishing details about the dumping sites used for muck generating from the work ongoing for the project.
However petitioners in their rejoinder, supported with tables and maps said that the entire project of 900 km was misleadingly fragmented into segments which are actually continuous stretches of five national highway to avoid environmental clearance.
They stated that the criteria of Cumulative Impact Assessment and carrying capacity study must be followed for Himalayan terrain while considering any infrastructural projects.
On the issue of strategic significance petitioners stated that government has the list of strategic roads Indo-China Border Roads (ICBR) and, none of the stretches mentioned by respondents falls into the category of ICBR. They said that the project was causing irreparable loss to the fragile and sensitive Himalayan ecology.
Representing MORTH, superintendent engineer Virender Singh Khaira in his affidavit stated that stretches upto 100 km are exempted from environmental clearance under Environmental Clearance Notification and so far the work in the project is within 100 km. He further mentioned that the length of individual project ranges from 0.7 km to 39 km. He emphasized on the need of widening of roads, primarily due to strategic reasons, being close to China border and also for the convenience of tourists as well as to avoid disaster.
Please click here to access.