Centre moves SC against 8-lane highway land order

A vacation bench comprising Justices MR Shah and AS Bopanna fixed the appeal of the central government against the April 8 order of the High Court for hearing on June 3 after the counsel said that the plea was of utmost importance. The High Court had held that the environmental clearance was mandatory for the sensitive project.

The High Court’s order had come on a batch of petitions filed by 35 land owners and PMK leader Anbumani Ramadoss. The pleas had challenged the land acquisition proceedings. The Court had made it clear that grant of prior environmental clearance would undoubtedly require a thorough study of the area and before that, a public hearing was needed to be conducted.

The ambitious 277.3-km-long eight-lane greenfield project connecting Salem and Chennai under the Centre’s ‘Bharatmala Pariyojana’ scheme aims to cut travel time between the two cities by half to about two hours and 15 minutes. However, it has been facing opposition from a section of locals, including farmers, over fears of losing their land, besides environmentalists who are against felling trees for it. The project runs through reserve forest and water bodies. The court had also held as “unsatisfactory” the project report of a consultant and had said it needed to be scrapped.