New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the Central government to comply with the 2018 circular of Ministry of Road Transport and Highways for constructing Char Dham National Highway connecting shrines at Yamunotri, Gangotri, Badrinath and Kedarnath in Uttarakhand.
As per the circular, the intermediate carriageway of 5.5m tarred surface has to be adopted in hilly terrain but the Centre wanted to make it 7m which the court refused to allow as it is the circular of government itself and they can not violate it.
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The court has also asked the Centre to plant trees to compensate for the loss of forest cover in the project.
Earlier, in an affidavit submitted by the High Powered Committee (HPC), constituted by SC, to the Environment Ministry and Supreme court, there was a divide among the members over the width wherein some members favoured the widening and some not. The Central government had filed a caveat in the top court requesting to not pass any orders without listening to it.
Back in 2019, the top court had constituted a committee to examine the government's Rs 12,000 crore worth project which would cover 900 km to better the connectivity in Uttarakhand pilgrimage spots. The committee had to examine the ecological impact of the project which proposes double lanes highways in place of a single lane.
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