NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday refused to stay the Madras High Court order which quashed the land acquisition process for the Rs 10,000-crore Salem-Chennai eight-lane green corridor project.
A vacation bench of Justices Indu Malhotra and M R Shah, however, issued notices to the parties including the Tamil Nadu government on the appeal of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).
NHAI had moved the top court on May 31 and the bench had then agreed to hear the appeal.
The high court had held that the environmental clearance was mandatory for the sensitive project.
The high court’s order had come on a batch of petitions filed by 35 landowners and PMK leader Anbumani Ramadoss.
The pleas had challenged the land acquisition proceedings.
The high court had made clear that grant of prior environmental clearance would undoubtedly require a thorough study of the area and before that a public hearing was needed to be conducted.
The ambitious 277.3-km-long eight-lane greenfield project connecting Salem and Chennai under the Centre’s ‘Bharatmala Pariyojana’ scheme aims to cut travel time between the two cities by half to about two hours and 15 minutes.
Environmental clearance was mandatory since the project would have an adverse impact on the environment, including water bodies, it said.
Protest in Salem
Farmers in Salem staged a hunger strike on Monday to condemn National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) for appealing in Supreme Court against a High Court order, which cancelled the Salem-Chennai Greenfield Expressway Corridor project.