Trees, grass turfs to make NH stretches green  

• The National Highway (NH) stretches will be made green corridors by planting trees, landscaping, and laying grass turfs and ornamental shrubs.
• The initiative of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) to make the NH stretches eco-friendly is part of the green highways policy to “tree-line” 96,000 km of NHs across the country.

Green Highways Fund

• In a communication to all States, the Ministry said a Green Highways Fund would be set apart utilising 1 per cent of the civil work cost while arriving at total road project cost.
• The funds to be transferred to the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) would be used exclusively for plantation and maintenance on all NH stretches being developed on the Engineering Procurement Construction (EPC) and Build Operate Transfer (BOT) mode.
• The NHAI will act as Fund Manager for maintaining the account and for release of the payments made by the Regional Officer or Project Director based on the recommendation of the monitoring agency-Indian Highways Management Company Ltd (IHMCL).
• At least one NH corridor in each State would be taken up for model plantation, which would be replicated in other stretches subsequently. The plantation and maintenance would be done through empanelled agencies of MoRTH through competitive bidding.
• The participation of community, farmers, non-governmental organisations, private sector, government agencies and the Forest Department will be ensured for effective plantation and better impact.