CHENNAI: The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), which is aggressively pushing multiple greenfield highway projects in Tamil Nadu under Bharatmala Pariyojana, suffered a setback with the Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) of Union Environment Ministry criticising it for doing a shoddy job while proposing the six-lane highway from Thatchur near Chennai to Chittoor in Andhra Pradesh.
The panel, which has taken-up the proposal for deliberation at its 193th meeting, has refused to recommend for grant of Terms of Reference (ToR) saying the proposed alignment passes over major water tanks found in the region and a huge chunk of forest continuity will be broken, if the highway is laid as per current alignment.
The EAC has asked NHAI and its appointed Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) consultant M/s Louis Burger to rework on the proposal. One of the major objections raised by the committee was the starting point of the proposed Chittoor-Thatchur Road. It is situated at the junction of the proposed Bengaluru-Chennai Expressway. Likewise, the endpoint of the proposed Chittoor-Thatchur Road merges at the proposed Chennai Peripheral Road, which also does not exist at present.
Besides, the committee felt that alternative options were not judiciously worked out. The NHAI presented three options before the committee. “The committee is of the view that options of alignment are not appropriately carried out and there was no information as per the scoring matrix.
In view of the observations, NHAI has reportedly deferred the project. The highway will cut through Pulikundram reserve forest in Red Hills range of Tiruvallur division and a minimum of 32 hectares of reserve forest will have to be cleared.
