SC clears Chardham highway, forms fresh panel to study environment impact
The Supreme Court has cleared the decks for the Chardham highway project, which will connect four holy places in the hills of Uttarakhand through 900-km all-weather roads, by modifying an NGT order to constitute a fresh committee to look into environmental concerns.
It ordered the Ministry of Environment and Forest to form the high-powered committee (HPC) by August 22.
NGO Citizen for Green Doon had petitioned the apex court, after the National Green Tribunal on September 26 last year gave its conditional approval to the connectivity project in view of larger public interest, saying the project would cause an irreversible damage to regional ecology.
