The government on Monday began review of 70 strategically important roads along the Sino-Indian border. Their construction has been held up on account of delay in environmental clearance.
Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh held a meeting with the Minister of State for Defence M.M. Pallam Raju. It was decided to jointly review the progress in three categories of projects – cleared, in principle approved and where the compliance report is pending – to give them a push.
Construction of roads covering 6,000 km. at a cost of Rs. 4,600 crore is proposed in Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. Over half of these roads are to be built and nearly a score in Uttarakhand. Some of them were approved in 2000-2001.
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An officer from the Forest Service would be deputed to the Border Roads Organisation, to oversee building of these roads for the Army, Indo-Tibetan Border Police and others.
Mr. Ramesh had earlier taken up the matter with Defence Minister A.K. Antony and the Monday’s meeting was to work to remove the roadblocks. While aware of the strategic importance of these roads, the Environment Ministry is concerned over the protection of ecology, especially in Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim.
The Ministers decided that a joint team would visit both Itanagar and Gangtok to take stock of the pending projects over the next three weeks and place a report before their meeting on October 5, where the progress would be reviewed.
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Mr. Ramesh said areas along the Sino-Indian border are one of the most eco-sensitive zones of the country.
Mr. Raju said in most cases the State Forest Departments have to clear diversion of forest land that do not form part of the protected areas, and only then the Centre can proceed with road construction.