Mumbai, Nov. 9 -- A road project near Udaipur in Rajasthan has received in-principle approval for the diversion of 14.6568 hectares of reserved and protected forest land. The approval was granted on 29 October by the regional office of the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change in Gandhinagar.
The permission is not final and does not yet authorise unrestricted use of the forest land. The relevant department must comply with 35 conditions before the project can receive final forest clearance for widening and strengthening the road.
As part of the conditions, compensatory afforestation will be carried out across an equivalent area of non-forest land at Bandanwara village. The plan includes planting about 14,650 saplings to offset the loss of forest land associated with the road works.
The project also includes three low-height wildlife underpasses to allow animals to cross the road. The safeguards are intended to reduce the effects of road construction and traffic on wildlife movement, including the risk of habitat fragmentation and animal collisions.
The approval order prohibits the establishment of labour camps inside the forest area. It also restricts tree felling to essential cases, which must be undertaken under the supervision of the Forest Department. In addition, four-foot cement-concrete pillars must be installed along the forest boundary to demarcate and protect the diverted area.
The conditions place responsibility on the implementing department to complete the required safeguards before seeking final permission. Until those requirements are met and final approval is issued, the in-principle decision remains conditional and does not constitute the final diversion clearance.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Construction World.