SC clears Chardham highway project, forms fresh committee for environmental concerns

The Supreme Court has cleared the decks for the ambitious Chardham highway project for all-weather connectivity to four holy towns of Uttarakhand and constituted a fresh high-powered committee to address environmental concerns.

A bench comprising Justices Rohinton Fali Nariman and Surya Kant modified the National Green Tribunal's September 26, 2018 order by constituting the high-powered committee.

"However, the Committee is to be headed by Prof. Ravi Chopra, who will replace Justice U C Dhyani, and will be the Chairman of the Committee.

"In addition to this, we add a representative of the Physical Research Laboratory, Department of Space, Government of India, Ahmedabad; a representative of the Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, a representative of MoEF, Regional Office Dehradun and a representative of the Ministry of Defence dealing with Border roads, not below the rank of Director. We direct MoEF to constitute the High Powered Committee within two weeks from the date of this order," the bench said.