The National Highways Authority of India has shown a “lack of responsibility” and “indifference” to its duties, the National Green Tribunal said this week while directing the agency to comply with the law on maintaining green cover and removing encroachments and illegal access to highways.
On Thursday, an NGT bench headed by chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel took exception to an affidavit filed by NHAI, which stated that the primary responsibility of protecting highways from encroachment, removing illegal access to them, and planting of trees along the carriageway and median, lay with the project contractor.
The bench observed: “The guidelines on tree plantations require leaving the space for the plantations upto 30 meters width. Encroachments obstruct compliance of such mandate.
