The Mission Intends To Learn From The Global Best Practices

Your mission has multiple objectives of improving the environment, developing agro-forestry, protecting biodiversity, employment and resource generation. What has been the progress so far?  

So far, the Mission has awarded Green Highways Projects (GHPs) along 2300 kms across 11 states to State Forest Departments, empanelled plantations agencies and small scale start up agencies. The work is in initial stages and the real progress and impact on ground will be visible in near future. The beginning has been made.

Plantation and allied activities require large manual workforce, generating livelihoods opportunities for semi/unskilled workers. Highways plantations are expected to generate sustained employment opportunity for 1 lakh semi/unskilled workers for minimum 250 days a year in next 10 years. On an average, it is expected to provide 4000 man-days of employment per km in plantation and management activities. There will be an equal amount of indirect employment opportunities for community members by promoting rural entrepreneurs and establishing allied cottage industries - Nursery development, tree guard manufacturing, organic manure, agri-processing sectors, etc during the life cycle of the project. Biodiversity conservation is one of the mandates of the Green Highways Projects. We have initiated to develop ‘Biodiversity Indices’ for different States.

Is the mission going to be restricted to tree plantation or will it include other global highway practices like use of new materials and designs in road building?

The activities of the Mission are not just restricted to plantation and maintenance activities. The Mission intends to learn from the global best practices, review them in Indian context and adopt and adept them in Indian context. NGHM is developing a document reviewing the Global Best practices for Roadside plantations as first step and then making the Vegetation Management Charter for India. Besides plantations, technical innovations and practices such as transplantation, hydro-seeding, soil bio-engineering techniques, high-tech organic nursery development in environment friendly way, use of green energy such as wind, solar etc for electrification and irrigation along the national highways.

Though NGHM will not be engaged in road designing but as per the GHP-2015, it is mandatory to include plantation, transplantation, beautification, landscaping and maintenance activities in the Detailed Project Report (DPR) as an integrated component for all new highways projects contributing to Integrated Green Corridor Development and Management.

Is there any model of highway development that you are planning to emulate?

NGHM intends to follow the green path of sustainable development by adopting and improvising the best models of green highways.  We are taking inputs from various best practices worldwide related to green highways. NGHM plans to initiate and run Centre for Innovations in Green Pathways which will serve as a platform to undertake research, innovations, trainings, capacity building programs and advocacy in the field of green pathways. India being a vast country with varied agro-climatic zones, we need to localize the implementation model site specific.

Every time a new highway is planned particularly through eco-sensitive and forest areas, there is talk of impact on the forest cover and animals. Will the mission help to address these concerns?

Around 15% of the NHs are passing through the forests and protected areas, which need special attention for wildlife conservation. Special protection measures for the forests and wildlife are intended in these areas. Specially designed wildlife corridors are proposed to be developed with the scientific inputs of specialized organizations, like Wildlife Institute of India and Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, Washington. Natural Corridors created by humans are typically associated with roads that are major sources of habitat fragmentation. Wildlife overpasses or underpasses are key examples of human-created corridors. Other corridors through urban areas such as greenways or riparian buffers may also constitute man-made corridors. NHAI is fully sensitive to the requirement of wildlife conservation.

Which are the organisations that are partnering the government efforts in implementing this program and are there any supporting research and analysis being undertaken to assess the impact?

So far, the Mission has initiated dialogue leading to partnerships with PSUs, corporates, forest departments, research institutes and international donors such as Power Finance Corporation, IOCL, Coal India Limited, ITC, Yes Bank, JK Papers, The World Bank, Asian Development Bank, TERI, Indian Paper Manufacturing Association (IPMA), INBAR, Haryana Forest Department, etc.  All Ministries and PSUs under them are also being approached for long term partnership under CSR and PPP.

In all the GHPs, a baseline study is being initiated to have the ground data against which the progress will be monitored in long run to see the impact of the project on various parameters: green cover, soil quality, livelihood generation, impact on climate, etc.

One of the mission goals is that in ten years it will be self-sustaining. In the interim how are you funding the project?

To make the mission sustainable in coming years, resource planning has been done considering funding support from NHAI, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways for all new highway projects as part of Integrated Green Corridor Development and Management, convergence with other government department / schemes, Funding from corporates & PSUs under CSR & PPP, Funding from multilateral and bilateral donors. For additional revenue generation, GHG sequestration benefits will also be linked with Voluntary Carbon Offset Markets.

What is the level of private funding / participation that is being tapped in this mission?

So far, we have entered into a formal agreements with the Power Finance Corporation, Maharashtra (NH 7), Indian Oil  Corporation Limited, Assam (NH 31), Numaligarh Oil Refinery, Assam (NH 31), and Haryana Forest Department, Haryana (NH 1)  covering 518 kms of NHs with approx. investment of Rs 75 crores .

What are the objectives behind the conference being held by NGHM in November?

NGHM is organizing a three days National Convention on Innovations in Green Highways to develop detailed roadmap and framework for establishing a knowledge center “Centre for Innovations in Green Pathways”. The aim is to find innovative solutions, promote and institutionalize innovative interventions in green highways and identify training and capacity building requirements of green highways project stakeholders.