Green highways?

Given the stress on upgrading fuel emission to near zero levels, work is all set to begin under the Green Highways policy announced in 2015, or it seems. At a consultation session held in April, organised by the Energy and Resource Institute of India, it was Nitin Gadkari, Union Road Transport and Highways Minister, who claimed that work on Green highways would start within two months. The policy is aimed at reducing the impact of air pollution and dust on highways by planting plants and shrubs all along. Claimed to act as a natural sink for air pollutants and green house gases, the initiative is said to be in line with government’s global committments in the past. Touching upon plantation, transplantation, beautification and maintenance of the highways, the session, attended by officials of National Highways Association of India (NHAI) and environmentalists, also focused upon the feasibility of relocating and transplanting grown trees along the highways. The minister promised to provide necessary funding needed for labour and mechanisation to be used in the process. NHAI plans to rope in non-government bodies, students, and businesses alike, and claimed to soon allot select patches of highways to the stakeholders on an experimental basis. Adding a caveat, Gadkari mentioned that the project implementation would be monitored through satellites and payment would be made only after the project is deemed successful. While the minister declared that one per cent of all funds sanctioned for new road construction, will be be earmarked for afforestation, auto majors and construction equipment companies are committed to provide vehicles that can run on alternated fuels like bio-diesel, ethanol to help the cause.