Chhattisgarh highway projects to have dedicated infra for wildlife movement

Don't want to miss the best from Business Standard?

A six-lane, 2.8-kilometre tunnel with 27 animal passes and 17 monkey canopies is a key component of the three national highway projects in Chattisgharh, the foundation stone for which will be laid by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday.

The tunnel will ensure unrestricted wildlife movement in the Udanti Wildlife Sanctuary area.

Noting this, official sources said the development of such dedicated infrastructure for the safe passage of wildlife and their habitation while building national highways and expressways has been a frequent feature of highway development under the Modi government.

On Friday, the prime minister will lay the foundation stone for three national highway projects for the Chhattisgarh section of the six-lane greenfield Raipur-Visakhapatnam corridor.

"It has been the vision of Prime Minister Modi to minimise the impact of highway development on wildlife," an official said.

Citing an example, the sources said the Delhi-Dehradun economic corridor, the foundation stone for which was laid by Modi in December 2021, will have Asia's largest elevated wildlife corridor (12 kilometres) for unrestricted wildlife movement.

They mentioned 51 such projects where special structures have been built for the unhindered movement of wildlife.

Modi will visit Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh on July 7 and Telangana and Rajasthan the following day. He will inaugurate or lay foundation stones of projects worth around Rs 50,000 crore, his office said on Wednesday.