With the escalation in population and high pace of pollution going on, every day a new record is marked. Nature is showing is its resistance to the outcomes of pollution leading to the several hazards and natural calamities. Some shows fast effect, but some shows slow impact over human life. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently during his US visit, had climate change as one of the topics of discussion with US president Barak Obama. India is not just talking about it, but taking steps in this direction. Newspapers and digital media are filled with the green highway policy that is launched this week.
Green highway policy is launched recently by the government as a step ahead to secure the nature along with employment generation. The policy is all about planting trees along the highways to make them a way of supporting the plantation drive.
Introduction
Currently the target is set to plant 6,000 km of highway in first year in which nearly 12,000 hectares of land is available. As per the sources, 1% of the total cost of highway construction project are to be dedicated to the green highway project, which can make around Rs1000 cr in a year. Ministry of road transport and highway is focusing on land acquisition for this project
Aim of project
The aim of this project is to reduce the pollution level in the air and overcoming soil erosion, side by side providing shade along the highways in hot summers, ultimately widening forest cover and simultaneously generating employment.
Other steps in this path
Highways constitute 20% of the roads of India handling 40% of the country’s traffic, making it a crucial part of India. Highways have been constructed over the land acquired from farmers or forest cover. So this project will recover the greenery that is vanished while facilitating the traffic. Adding to this, the officials revealed that every tree is audited and counted and will be monitored through ISRO’s Bhuvan and GAGAN satellite. Nitin Gadhkari announced that our country has innovated lithium oil battery. This battery, if used in state owned buses, will reduce the diesel import by 8 lakh crore leading to monetary and Eco friendly benefit
Similar Approach
Similar plans are under the frame with the same aim of making India green. The government is planning to install CNG gas stations on selected highways Delhi – Agra, Delhi – Chandigarh, Delhi – Haridwar and Mumbai- Pune highways. The plan will encourage the use of CNG on long routes and reducing dependency over diesel and petrol. Well, CNG is encouraged in India as it is the fuel that when used in vehicles, emits less smoke (greenhouse gasses). It also increases the life of engine and is also proving to be safer than petrol and diesel. The only thing that is negative is that it need greater area for storage as compared to other popular fuels.
Such steps matters a lot when it comes to save the nature. Their proper implementation is necessary for getting expected outcomes. India is going on a high speed development and need to think about this phase and take effective steps.
