National Highways Authorities of India (NHAI) has approved a pilot project for undertaking scientific studies on designing greenbelts along national highways.
Proposal in this regard was submitted by Nagpur based National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI).
Points to note
- The project will be implemented on a 5 km stretch on NH-7 between Jam and Hinganghat in Nagpur region at an estimated cost of Rs 11.80 crore.
- Around 20,000 scientifically chosen species of trees are proposed to be planted on both sides of this stretch in multiple rows.
- The project will run for five years and during this period various experiments will be conducted in NEERI laboratory to record the impact of greenbelt development.
- Besides developing greenbelt, the project will also assist in developing relevant research infrastructure that may be used for similar studies in future.
- Highway requirement and objectives includes traffic frequency, available space, soil type, water availability, climatic conditions and anthropogenic interference
- Plant characteristics to fit in the site requirement would depend on height, canopy cover, air pollution Tolerance Index and sociability of selected species of trees.