HYDERABAD: As many as 11 crucial National Highway projects have been stalled in the state due to lack of forest clearance from the Centre.
The state government is in touch with the Union government to soon get green clearance for these projects.
In a bid to get the nod for the projects at the earliest, the state government, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) are in the process of collecting all the required details sought by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC).
It may be mentioned that Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy discussed the issue with Union Forest and Environment Minister Bhupendra Yadav during his recent visit to New Delhi.
Following the meeting, the officials prepared a list of reasons that are leading to a delay in granting clearances.
According to officials, the main reasons for delay are the problems over allocated land for compensatory afforestation, violations and mitigation measures.
The Centre is likely to give its nod for these projects soon as we will be submitting all the necessary details, said an official. Laying new roads and adding more lanes for projects like the Armoor-Jagtial-Mancherial road, Hyderabad-Bhoopalapatnam road, Medak-Siddipet, Medak-Yellareddy, Siddipet-Elkathurthy, Sironcha-Mahadevpur, Nizamabad-Jagdalpur, Nizamabad-Armoor, Hyderabad ORR (Interchange at Gowrelly)-Thorrur-Nellikuduru-Mahabubabad-Yellandu- Kothagudem road and Mahabubabad-Yellandu-Kothagudem road are awaiting forest clearance.
A total of 145.62 hectares of forest land is proposed to be diverted for the construction and upgrading of these 11 road projects.