According to sources, the cost of two road projects that National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) is executing in Nagpur may increase by more than Rs 1 billion due to mitigation measures to be taken for tiger corridors. Since over a year, the construction work has been suspended on the highways connecting Nagpur and Katol, and Bamni (near Ballarshah) to Lakkadkot (near the Telangana border). These projects currently cost more than Rs 6 billion and Rs 8 billion respectively. According to the sources, additional addition is probably due to the mitigation actions.
At a later stage the precise estimations will be determined. They emphasised that the escalation might only be 20% to 25% of the initial cost. After the stage 2 forest clearance was acquired for the Nagpur-Katol project, the tiger corridor issue arose. The last approval given after confirming that all requirements have been completed is a stage 2 clearance. The stage 2 permission for the Nagpur- Katol Road was received in September 2021. The NHAI was later advised by the forest department in January 2022 that the project also requires a wildlife clearance.
The justification offered was that about 12 km of the road run through a tiger corridor, necessitating specific mitigation measures such the building of animal underpasses. The concessionaire for the project had already been chosen by that point by the NHAI. The National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) is currently holding the proposal while the NHAI plays the waiting game. According to sources, NHAI might have adjusted the alignment and adopted a different route, had it known about the existence of tigers at the outset. On the other hand, according to sources in the forest department, the Wildlife Institute of India’s (WII) research on the terrain of eastern Vidarbha was the basis for the notification of the tiger corridors.
As the Nagpur-Katol Road project received stage 2 approval, the report went into effect. The four- laning of the existing two-lane road in Bamni-Lakkadkot is also awaiting approval. The stage 1 approval in this case was given in September 2022. Only 1.6 km of the 33 kilometre road fall within the boundaries of the Tiger Corridor Grid, as first communicated to the NHAI. However, it was later noted that the road crosses through a 22-kilometer-long tiger corridor, necessitating the implementation of appropriate mitigation measures. In May 2022, the deal was signed. Sources claimed that the work cannot begin unless NBWL has given its consent.
