The Centre on Friday moved the Supreme Court against an order passed by the Madras High Court on April 8, quashing the land acquisition process for the ₹10,000-crore Salem-Chennai eight-lane greenfield corridor project.
A vacation bench led by Justice M.R. Shah listed the case for hearing on June 3. The High Court had held that environmental clearance was mandatory for the sensitive project.
The High Court’s order came on a batch of petitions filed by 35 landowners and PMK leader Anbumani Ramadoss, challenging the land acquisition proceedings.
The court made it clear that grant of prior environmental clearance would undoubtedly require a thorough study of the area and, before that, a public hearing must be conducted.
The High Court wanted the project report by a consultant to be scrapped and a proper study done, detailing the impact of the proposed project on forest land, waterbodies, wildlife, flora and fauna.
The ambitious 277.3-km-long eight-lane greenfield project, connecting Salem and Chennai under the Centre’s Bharatmala Pariyojana, 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, who fear losing their land, besides from environmentalists, who are against the felling of trees for the project.
