Government to plant trees on 1,500 km highways on July 1: Nitin Gadkari

NEW DELHI: As part of its green initiative, Ministry of Road, Transport and Highways (MoRTH) will plant trees along 1,500 km of highways on July 1. This will be a part of Rs 5,000-crore initiative as the Ministry has already announced earmarking of 1 per cent of the about Rs 5 lakh crore projects for plantation and transplantation."It is our endeavour to save and plant trees to conserve the environment...we had to cut trees

for building roads but it will be our effort that trees are not cut, we will encourage transplantion. We will also be planting trees on 1,500 km on July 1," Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari today said. As part of the initiative, four trees in the campus of Road Transport and Highways Ministry, where an automated parking plaza is being built, will be shifted somewhere on the highway, he told reporters.

It will be the first government building to have an automated multi-level car parking facility in its premises at a cost of about Rs 9 crore.

The transplantation could soon be taken on a massive scale and crores of trees could be saved during highways building and other construction activities, the minister said.

He said wide-ranging consultations have already been done with 100 agencies including Malaysian and American consultants on the topic.

"We are encouraging people working in this direction so that no trees are cut in future... We have allocated 1 per cent cost of the road construction for plantation, transplantation, which comes to Rs 5,000 crore," he said.

"NGOs, schools, colleges, charitable trusts, cooperatives, corporates should come forward for this drive. We will plant trees based on the soil of the regions," he added.

The foundation stone for the plaza was laid on May 9. The automated parking lot project is being undertaken by NHIDCL. The facility will comprise ground plus seven floors.

Spread over an area of 314 sq metres and with a height of 22 metres, the facility will be able to house 112 cars. The retrieving time for cars will be 120 seconds. The facility is being built by a Swiss Company.