CHENNAI: The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is proposing to upgrade the Thirumangalam-Rajapalayam section of the NH-744 to four lane for which 233.12-hectare land in the protected area falling within the 10-km eco-sensitive zone (ESZ) of the Srivilliputtur Grizzled Squirrel Wildlife Sanctuary is likely to come under the hammer.
The project alignment is part of the Madurai-Kollam section and included under inter-corridor route of the Bharatmala Pariyojana Phase-I spanning Madurai and Virudhnagar districts. V Saravanan, project director, Regional Office (Madurai), submitted the proposal, seeking the State forest clearance on March 2 and the proposal is currently under consideration.
As per the official documents, accessed by Express, the total land required for the project is 429.6 hectares, of which 233.12-hectare land is a protected area in Grizzled Squirrel Wildlife Sanctuary in Srivilliputtur wildlife division and the remaining 196.48-hectare project area is a non-protected area. One section of the road comes as close as 1.46 km to the boundary of the wildlife sanctuary.
However, NHAI officials said the ESZ for the sanctuary is yet to be notified and as per draft notification uploaded on the Union Environment Ministry website, about 4.51km of the proposed project alignment passes through the proposal ESZ.
“This is an up-gradation project of the existing highway of 73.8km of which about 58km of existing length lies within default 10-km default ESZ. So except for some bypasses and re-alignment, no other alternative has been examined,” they said and added that the project was fully justified.