HYDERABAD: The Telangana government has sought forest clearances for the construction of the northern part of Regional Ring Road and has proposed three alignments to the Ministry of Environment and Forests for diverting certain extent of forest land for the RRR project.
Of the three alignments, the government is preferring Alignment-1 which covers a length of 158.64 km and has an estimated cost of Rs 8,407.39 crore. This alignment connects Sangareddy, Masaipet, Toopran, Nagulapalle, Gajwel, Yadagirigutta, Bhuvanagiri and Choutuppal. For this the state requires a diversion of 62.2 hectares of land with 7.2 km passing through forest land.
Alignment-2 spans 171.2 km and is estimated to cost Rs 9,958.61 crore. It requires 32.7 hectares of land and passes through Manjeera Wildlife Sanctuary.
Alignment-3 covers 175.42 km with an estimated cost of Rs 9,290.33 crore and necessitates a diversion of 144.2 hectares of forest land.
Among the proposed alignments, the government has emphasised the need for clearances for Alignment-1 due to its advantages. The government, in its applications for forest clearances stated that, Alignment - 1 is most suitable considering the connectivity to important cities and district towns and has a shorter length compared to the other two alignments.
It also pointed out that Alignment 1 impacts fewer water bodies, involves removal of less trees and less social impact. In contrast, Alignments 2 and 3 would affect a larger number of families and have more significant environmental and social repercussions.
Under Alignment-1, 5,796 families will be affected and 48,765 trees will need to be felled.