HYDERABAD: The proposal for four-lane National Highway-363, from Mancherial to Maharashtra border, by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), has been recommended for granting Stage-I clearance by the Regional Empowered Committee (REC), Chennai, of the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests.
This will require clearing of 62.5 hectares of forest land, close to the Tiger Corridor between Telangana and Maharashtra. The decision to recommend the project was taken by the REC in its meeting held on August 14. The NH-363 connects Hyderabad to Karimnagar and runs till Chanda in Maharashtra. In the same meeting, Telangana Government’s proposal seeking permission to clear 31 hectares of forest, to connect backward villages in Kothagudem district, was turned down by the REC.
The REC said the project falls in a Left Wing Extremism affected district and required over five hectares of forest land and as per Central government norms, the Telangana Government should first form a committee, for further scrutiny of the proposal. The REC also nominated a non-official member to the committee, BSS Reddy, a retired IFS officer.