Green Corridor: National highways to be made greener using a special fund

In order to plant trees along the national highways, the road transport and highways ministry is considering setting up a Rs 1,000-crore green fund. Officials aware of the matter told ET that the ministry has set a target of making about 10,000 kilometres of existing national highways greener during the financial year. This would be done by planting both fruit-bearing trees and shrubs.

The job of planting these trees and shrubs will be entrusted to over 200 NGOs and rural organisations. The green fund is likely to be set up under the ministry's green highways policy, which was unveiled in 2015. The policy suggested converting all upcoming and existing national highways into green highways.

The policy suggested setting aside 1% of the total highway cost for planting trees in a planned manner. In the current fiscal, road contracts worth at least Rs 1.5 lakh crore will be awarded to these organisations.

The ministry is now encouraging all the state governments to follow the same policy for all the existing and upcoming state highways. The funds would be managed by NHAI, which would release payments based on recommendations of officials and agencies concerned.

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