Chandigarh, July 24 -- The Punjab and Haryana high court (HC) has ordered a re-survey of the 19 km Zirakpur-Panchkula bypass project of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) over environmental concerns. The foundation stone of the project was to be laid by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his July 17 visit. However, it had to be deferred in view of the HC, on April 1, putting a stay on the felling of trees for the project. The court had acted on a public interest litigation (PIL) against the felling of nearly 5,000 trees for the project, connecting Zirakpur in Punjab to a toll plaza on Chandigarh-Shimla highway in Haryana. The six-lane stretch, spanning nearly 19.2 km, will start at the Patiala-Zirakpur light point on NH-7 and terminate at the old Panchkula light point on NH-5, helping the Shimla-bound traffic completely avoid the Zirakpur bottleneck. Similarly, traffic from Shimla heading towards Ambala or Delhi will also be able to bypass Zirakpur. "...we are prima facie of the view that an endeavour should be made in the right earnest by the NHAI to examine all possible options, in order to mitigate the ecological damage, while carrying out the development activities of the proposed bypass. Before proceeding further, it would be apposite that NHAI carries out a proper re-survey to explore all possible options. It may employ the services of any reputed technical expert body or institution for the purpose," the court said after perusing the report submitted by the NHAI, and examining the alternative proposals regarding re-alignment submitted by the petitioner. The bench of acting chief justice Ashwani Kumar Mishra and justice Rohit Kapoor posted the matter for August 1 and ordered that re-survey be done and a fresh report be filed within 10 days. The petitioner's counsel Anand Chhibbar had asserted that the felling of trees can be avoided if a minor re-alignment or an alternative alignment, is accepted by the NHAI. Such re-alignment/alternative alignment, would not only save the felling of such a large number of trees, but would also attain significant savings in costs, he added. The NHAI had expressed certain technical difficulties in alignments proposed by the petitioner, including a minor re-alignment towards theGhaggar river bed and the option of alternative alignment of the bypass through the sector-dividing road in Panchkula. Chhibbar had pointed out that similar re-alignments have been carried out at various sites in the country, wherein the alleged technical/engineering constraints, have been taken care of. The NHAI has got the present proposal made from a private entity, and is acting in a pre-determined manner, without seeking the assistance of any expert body or institution, he had submitted adding that the matter be examined by any reputed expert body like the IIT, Roorki. The NHAI had planned to start work by September 2026 and completion within two years. Work on the project originally began in 2013 but was halted in February 2014 when some landowners went to court seeking higher compensation. The road is part of the proposed tricity ring road that is expected to prevent approximately 1.5 lakh vehicles from Punjab and Haryana from entering the city daily. Chandigarh's Master Plan also supports this road to divert inter-state traffic around the city for better traffic management....