As countries around the world are making plans for economic recovery in the wake of the Kovid epidemic, they are also working on reducing carbon emissions to meet the challenges of climate change. India is also one of them, which aims to become a $5 trillion economy by 2024 as well as prioritize the creation of climate resilient development zones. In this direction, the central government is engaged in work by focusing on "Green Infrastructure" so that this set goal can be fulfilled. Let us now know what big steps have been taken in this direction in the country.
Formation of Green Highway Mission
Green highways are being constructed in the country today under the guidance of Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari. These highways work towards achieving the goals of reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, carbon footprint and use of non-renewable energy sources. Actually, along with the need to develop the country, there is also a need to maintain ecology and environment. Realizing this, the central government formed a "Green Highway Mission".
Green Highway Policy
In September 2015, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways had announced the 'Green Highway Policy' i.e. "Green Highway Policy" and following this the National Green Highways Mission was launched. The objective of this project is to expand safe and green National Highway corridors in selected states. It aims to provide seamless connectivity and reduce logistics cost. It may be noted that the National Forest Policy envisages that 33 per cent of the geographical area should be covered by forest or trees, but the notified forest area is only 22 per cent. The implementation of the New Green Highway Policy-2015 is helping a lot in bridging this gap.
National Green Highway Mission Mobile App
The National Green Highway Mission mobile app is also working to strengthen the projects of the Central Government. The mobile application enables management to monitor all projects with real time data from the field. Further, it helps in early identification of technology bottlenecks and ensures quick and successful implementation of projects.
22 green field corridors are being developed
22 Green Field Corridors are also being developed by the Central Government, including 5 Express Highways and 17 Access Control Highways. An estimated Rs 3.26 lakh crore will be spent on these 22 greenfield projects with a length of 8,000 km. These 22 expressways have been said to be completed by 2025. Out of these, the deadline for completing three expressways and greenfield expressways has been kept in the year 2022. Among these, work will be done first on Delhi-Mumbai Expressway, Trans-Rajasthan, ie inside Rajasthan, Trans-Haryana, ie Haryana. Apart from this, important work is being done under the Golden Quadrilateral project, NHDP scheme, Bharatmala, PMGSY, Setu Bharatam and Sagarmala project in the direction of increasing the road connectivity. The Delhi-Meerut Expressway will reduce the travel time between the two cities from the present time of about four hours to just 45 minutes. At the same time, the travel time between Delhi and Dehradun will also be reduced from the current 6-7 hours to just 2 hours. At the same time, for the Char Dham Yatra of Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri and Yamunotri, efforts are on to complete the all-season road process. These will boost tourism in Uttarakhand.
Greenfield Expressway
Actually, greenfield expressways are those expressways which are taken out of green areas. These are also called green corridors. Regarding the reasons behind making them, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari says that through them an attempt has been made to avoid populated areas, with this land can be found cheap, as well as such an express for the people of those backward areas- They will create new economic opportunities.
When was the Green Corridor identified?
In July 2018, the central government identified 5 industrial corridors that can be made green corridors. For this, the traffic movement was studied and at the same time it was seen that the facility of transporting the goods made in the industrial center to the consumption center and ports could be increased. This means that the ease of doing business can be increased.
plantation system
Union Minister Nitin Gadkari had said in this subject that for the purpose of plantation, Rs 1,000 crore would be available to the country per year. This policy will also create employment opportunities for about five lakh people in rural areas. There are also plans to set up a robust monitoring system using ISRO's Bhuvan and Gagan satellite systems. Arrangements have also been made for counting and auditing of every tree planted. It emphasizes not only on the trees planted, but also on how many of them are alive. It is also useful for local communities. Along with this, best performing agencies will be rewarded for incentives in this direction. Suggestions will be sought from the people for smooth implementation of the policy. According to this plan of the Center, many state governments have also been asked to start programs on the same lines. 1,200 roadside facilities will also be set up. Green Highway Policy will help in making India pollution free. road accident in india It will also help in reducing the number of s. The vision of the policy is to provide dignified employment to the local people and communities.
It is mandatory to have a green fund corpus
Under the Green Highway Project, the government has made it mandatory to set aside 1 per cent of the total project cost of any NH contract for the green fund corpus which will be used for plantation purposes. The plantation is expected to help in harvesting about 1.2 million million tonnes of carbon annually.
'Waste to Wealth and Waste to Energy'
'Waste to Wealth and Waste to Energy' is one of the important solutions to save the environment. The central government is working fast towards converting public transport to electricity based system. Since April, 2020 till date, remarkable success has been achieved in constructing 12,205 kms of National Highways at the rate of 34 kms per day.
Features of Green Highway Policy…
Promoting green and development of eco-friendly national highway corridors across the country with the participation of farmers, private sector and government institutions including forest department
It will address the issues that lie in the way of development and pave the way for sustainable development
To reduce the impact of air pollution and dust by planting trees and shrubs along the national highways. They will act as natural sinks for air pollutants and prevent soil erosion on the embankment slopes.
The contract to make the highway green will be given to NGOs, agencies, private companies and government organizations. These stakeholders will be responsible for the survival and health of the trees
Plantation in a particular area will depend on the suitability of the soil and climatic conditions
It will be responsible for monitoring the status of plantation on continuous basis by making site visits for field verification to check survival, growth and size of plantation and its maintenance.
-Performance audit of the executing agencies will be carried out regularly by the agency on an annual basis. New contracts will be awarded to agencies on the basis of their past performance audits.
The policy will strike a balance between development of highways and environmental protection. This will also help in providing employment to 5 lakh people in rural areas.
