NGT scraps plea against road widening project.

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has junked a plea challenging a road widening project being carried out by DLF and Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) in Sectors 55 and 56 of Gurugram.

A Bench headed by Justice Jawad Rahim rejected the plea filed by a former IFS officer noting that the widening project was a sector road and not a national highway.

“On facts, we notice that the area comes within Sectors 55 and 56 and it is reasonable to believe that it is not a national highway. The applicant has not established that it was national highway and was a fresh road being laid, which attracted the restriction of the National Forest Policy, 1908, and provisions of Environment Protection Act, 1986, and rules made thereunder,” the Bench said.

The green panel took into account the submission made by the project proponent that they had chopped the trees after getting the proper permissions and had transplanted 10 times the number of trees, totalling 11,000 trees.

THE HINDU