Guwahati Bypass: NHAI plans out-of-the-box environmental solution

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: The conversion of the four-lane Guwahati Bypass from the Jalukbari Point to Basistha Chariali to a six-lane one needs the felling of 2,600 trees. The NHAI (National Highway Authority of India) and the construction company have struck a happy medium to uproot 1,000 trees and translocate them.

This stretch of the bypass has small Peepal trees, Ashoka trees etc., mostly on its right-hand side from the Jalukbari Point to Basistha Chariali. Instead of felling all the trees, the NHAI has planned to take the service of machines that uproot small trees to translocate them elsewhere in consultation with the state authorities.

It is an out-of-the-box environmental solution devised by the NHAI and the construction company. The contract has no clause regarding the translocation of the trees.

Talking to The Sentinel, NHAI's Guwahati office Project Director Suresh Kumar said, "We have the permission to fell 2,600 trees to convert the four-lane national highway to a six-lane one. We are sensitive to environmental issues. We will plant as many trees as we felled toward the end of the project. We will try our best to save some of the trees in the undisturbed areas of the road, if possible.

"We have planned to uproot around 1,000 small trees and translocate them on the Rangiya side. We will do this in consultation with the district administration and the divisional forest officer. We will also do our best to make the 'translocated' trees survive. And the construction company will extend all logistic support in this plan in the form of its CSR (corporate social responsibility).

"Since Guwahati Bypass is the lifeline for the entire Northeast, we have asked the construction company to complete the project as early as possible."

The six-lane Guwahati Bypass will have four flyovers — at Boragaon, Gorchuk, Lokhara and Basistha Chariali. It will also have a vehicular underpass at Beharbari Point.

NHAI Headquarters awarded the project to Haryana-based Dhariwal Buildtech Company Ltd for Rs 300 crore. The completion time of the project is 29 months. The works of the project began on March 3, 2022.

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