Chardham highway project: Supreme Court allows works on connecting four holy places by all-weather road

The Centre`s Chardham Mahamarg Vikas Pariyojna plan for connecting four holy places -- Yamunotri, Gangotri, Kdarnath and Badrinath -- by an all-weather road has got the Supreme Court nod on Friday. An apex court bench comprising Justices Rohinton Fali Nariman and Surya Kant, however, ordered the Ministry of Environment and Forests to form a high-powered committee (HPC) by August 22, so that the panel will be able to consider cumulative as well as independent impact of the project on entire Himalayan valleys. The key points of the SC directive are given here: 

1. According to the Supreme Court directive, the committee will also give directions to conduct Environmental Impact Assessment by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, besides submitting  its recommendations within four months.

2. The bench said the committee will hold quarterly meetings to ensure compliance and suggest any further measure after each review meeting. The committee would consider if revision of the full Chardham project should at all take place in order to minimize the adverse impact on the environment and social life.

3. The apex court said the committee will also assess the environmental degradation, loss of forest lands, water resources and the impact on the wildlife, adding that it will direct mitigation measures.

4. The SC gave its conditional approval to the connectivity project in view of larger public interest after hearing a plea by NGO Citizen for Green Doon against the National Green Tribunal`s September 26, 2018 order. The NGT, while clearing the Chardham project, had said: "We are of the view that all environmental concerns can be addressed by having a responsible and independent oversight mechanism which may monitor the environmental safeguards during the execution of the project."

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5. The NGO said the NGT, instead of looking at the entire project as one whole, viewed it in over 50 segments, which made them appear small projects not necessitating environment clearance or public hearing. It further submitted that the hills in the region are fragile and that if the project is allowed to continue, it would cause an irreversible damage to ecology that would be equal to the damage done together by 10 hydro power projects.