Supreme Court nod to NHAI projects that began before its order on soil extraction

A bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan on Wednesday said the NHAI need not halt work on projects in which work order has been issued but sought a complete list of such projects. The court, however, did not stay its March 21 order. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta appeared for the government authority on Wednesday.

In its prayer, the NHAI stated that it was not heard earlier as it was not made a party to the case and thus could not “apprise this court of the enormous and large-scale financial and socio-economic and other costs on the ongoing projects” due to the court’s directions.

The authority went on to state that “approximately 485 infrastructure road projects for construction of national highways of the length of approximately 16,546 kms across the various states in the country are in progress and are at different stages of completion. In all these national highway projects, which are currently under implementation, the total capital costs and investments are approximately assessed to the tune of 6.10 lakh crore”.

“It is stated that all these projects will be directly affected and the work will come to a grinding halt as ordinary earth is required for a road project on a regular basis,” it said.

The NHAI said it estimated the idling costs, price adjustments (escalation) costs and toll revenue losses to the extent of over Rs 10,500 crore as a “rough and initial estimate”. Work stoppages, it added, could have cascading effects on contractors, their finance lenders and could lead to disputes and legal proceedings.

The Authority sought to assure the court that there were sufficient environment safeguards in place under various Indian Road Congress codes, guidelines of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and the Environment Protection Act and Rules while extracting soil and sand for projects.

The apex court had quashed the Environment ministry’s Covid-19 lockdown period notification on the grounds that the Union of India had failed to follow procedures laid down under Environment Protection Rules, 1986. It also said that the Central government had failed to establish the element of public interest while dispensing with the requirement of prior public notice. It also held the exemption from green permissions for soil excavation as arbitrary and violative of Article 14 of the Constitution.