Highway Projects and Environmental Clearance: Residents' Rights

New national highways need prior environmental clearance (EC) from the MoEFCC, and new state highways need EC at the state level. Many widening projects do not, because expansion of an existing highway needs EC only above the length and extra land thresholds in the EIA Notification 2006. Even where no EC is needed, the project still needs permission to cut trees, forest clearance for any forest land, and consents for its hot mix plants and crushers, and it must control dust, noise and drainage. Residents can use each of those points.

This guide is for villagers, farmers, colony residents and RWAs who live along a new or widened highway, whether it is a national highway being built by NHAI or a state highway being built by the PWD or a state road corporation. It separates what is an environmental issue, which the authorities and the NGT can deal with, from land acquisition and compensation, which follow a different law. For the general route to challenge a clearance, see our page on challenging an environmental clearance in the NGT.

Highway projects are public infrastructure, and the tribunal is slow to stop them outright. That shapes what works: precise objections, enforceable conditions and specific relief on trees, drainage, noise and dust usually achieve more than a demand to cancel the road.

The essentials

Does a highway project need environmental clearance?

Some do and many do not. The EIA Notification 2006 lists highways in its schedule. New national highways are category A and need prior EC from the MoEFCC after appraisal by its expert committee. Expansion of an existing national highway needs EC only when it crosses thresholds based on the length of the stretch and the additional right of way or land being acquired. New state highways are category B, and some state highway expansions in hilly terrain or ecologically sensitive areas are also covered.

These thresholds have been amended over the years, and there are special provisions for certain strategic and border roads. Do not rely on a figure you read in a news report or a WhatsApp forward. Look at the current schedule, and better still, ask the project authority or the MoEFCC whether an EC was obtained. An RTI to NHAI or the state PWD asking for the EC, or a letter saying none was required and why, settles the point within 30 days.

Many four-laning and six-laning projects on existing alignments proceed without an EC because they are under the thresholds. That does not mean they are free of environmental law. They still need permission for every tree cut, forest clearance for any forest land, consents for their plants, and compliance with dust, noise and waste rules. Most of the practical relief residents get comes from these other permissions, not from the EC.

Permissions a highway project may need

A highway is a bundle of permissions, each with its own authority. Knowing which ones apply tells you where to complain.

What rights do residents have before a highway is cleared?

For a highway that needs EC, the main right is the public consultation. Category A projects, and many category B projects, must hold a public hearing in the district, organised by the State Board, after the draft EIA report and its summary are made available. For a linear project like a highway, hearings are usually held in each district the road passes through. Some expansions within existing land are exempt from the hearing, so check whether yours was.

Use the hearing well. Read the executive summary of the EIA report before the date, and come with specific points: the village pond the alignment cuts through, the school that will be within metres of the carriageway, the natural drain the embankment will block, the grove of old trees the report does not mention. Ask for your objection to be recorded in the minutes, and send a written copy to the State Board and the MoEFCC so it is on the file even if the minutes are thin. Our guide on objections at an EIA public hearing explains how to make them count.

Advocate B.K. Singh's usual advice to villages along a new alignment is to put drainage, access and water source objections in writing at this stage, with a simple sketch map, because the expert committee can turn a well-made objection into a condition (a culvert at a named point, a noise barrier near a school, a service road) far more easily than the NGT can redesign the road later.

Can residents challenge the environmental clearance for a highway?

Yes. An order granting EC can be appealed to the NGT under section 16 of the NGT Act within 30 days of communication, with up to 60 more days if there is sufficient cause. For residents, "communication" is usually taken from when the EC was put in the public domain, through the newspaper advertisement or publication of the letter, so watch for it. Once that window closes, an appeal against the grant becomes very difficult.

The grounds that work are concrete. The EIA report left out a river, wetland or forest patch in the alignment. The baseline data was copied from another project. The public hearing was not held, or held without proper notice, or the minutes do not reflect what was said. The project was split into short stretches to keep each one under the threshold. Our guide on mistakes in an EIA report deals with how such errors are proved.

Be realistic about the result. The tribunal rarely quashes a highway EC entirely. More often it sends the matter back for fresh consideration of a specific issue, adds conditions, or directs measures such as wildlife crossings, noise barriers or drainage works. If work is about to begin on something irreversible, such as felling a large number of trees, an interim application can be made; see our guide on interim relief and stay in the NGT.

Trees and forest land along the highway

Tree cutting is where most residents first notice a highway. Every tree in the right of way needs felling permission under the state's tree law or forest rules, usually with a condition of compensatory planting, often at several times the number felled. Ask the tree officer or the forest department, through RTI if needed, for the permission, the number and species of trees allowed, and the location and status of the compensatory plantation. Gaps between the permission and what is actually felled are common.

Forest land raises the stakes. If the alignment passes through reserved or protected forest, or through land that counts as forest in the dictionary sense under the Supreme Court's reasoning in T.N. Godavarman Thirumulpad v Union of India, the project needs forest clearance before work starts. In some states, roadside strip plantations are themselves notified as forest, which means widening the road needs forest clearance even where no one thinks of the area as a forest. Approvals under section 2 of the forest law can be appealed to the NGT under section 16.

Our guide on tree cutting for a road project deals with whether felling can be stopped and what conditions are realistic to ask for, and our page on forest clearance covers the approval process.

Dust, plants and night work: problems during construction

Construction is often worse for residents than the finished road. Contractors set up hot mix plants, stone crushers and concrete batching plants near the alignment, often on rented farmland close to villages, and run them round the clock. Each needs consent from the State Board, and each is subject to state siting norms on distance from habitation, schools and water bodies, so check your state's current siting rules. Our guide on hot mix and asphalt plant pollution covers complaints against these plants specifically.

Dust from haul roads, uncovered earth and debris is covered by the Air Act, the Construction and Demolition Waste Management Rules and, where the project has an EC, its conditions on water sprinkling and covering of material. In Delhi NCR, the dust control measures under GRAP also apply to road works. Borrow pits dug for embankment earth are another frequent issue: left unfilled, they collect water and become a drowning risk for children and cattle.

Night work brings noise. The Noise Rules set ambient limits of 55 dB(A) by day and 45 dB(A) by night in residential areas, and residents can complain to the DM, the police and the State Board when machinery runs through the night near homes. Contractors sometimes have permission for night work in specific stretches, so ask for it before assuming it is illegal.

What residents can do about a highway project, step by step

The order matters. Each step creates a record that the next one relies on.

Noise and drainage problems once the highway is running

Traffic noise from a busy highway near homes, schools and hospitals is a long-term harm. Where the EC required noise barriers or a green buffer near sensitive receptors, those are enforceable conditions. Where there was no EC, residents can still ask the project authority and the State Board to measure ambient noise and compare it with the limits for the zone. Silence zones cover at least 100 metres around hospitals, educational institutions and courts, with limits of 50 dB(A) by day and 40 dB(A) by night. Our page on noise pollution complaints covers the authorities.

Drainage is the problem villages complain about most after a highway is built. A raised embankment acts like a dam across natural slopes and drains, and without enough culverts, water collects on one side every monsoon, flooding fields and homes. This is a real environmental and public nuisance issue. Write to the project director with photos from the monsoon, ask for a survey of cross drainage, and copy the DM. If nothing is done, the SDM's power to remove a public nuisance under section 152 of the BNSS and an NGT application are both available. Our guide on encroachment blocking a natural drain deals with similar cases.

Who to approach for which highway problem

What the NGT will not do in a highway case

The tribunal does not decide land acquisition, compensation for land or the choice between two alignments on engineering or cost grounds. Disputes about the amount of land compensation under the National Highways Act go through the competent authority and arbitration that the Act provides. Objections to the acquisition itself must be filed within the short window stated in the acquisition notification. Missing that deadline cannot be fixed by an environmental case.

Nor will the tribunal stop a public road because residents would prefer it elsewhere. It will act where there is a substantial environmental question: a missing or flawed EC, illegal tree felling, forest land diverted without approval, a polluting plant without consent, a drain blocked so that a village floods. Framing the case around those questions, with evidence, is what separates the applications that get orders from those dismissed at the first hearing.

What to collect for a highway complaint

Mistakes residents make in highway cases

• Missing the 30-day appeal window. Residents often learn about the EC months later, when trees start falling. Watch for the newspaper notice.
• Assuming no EC means no rules. Tree, forest, consent, noise and drainage rules apply to every highway project.
• Asking the NGT to move the road. Alignment choice is rarely a ground the tribunal accepts. Specific environmental fixes are.
• Mixing compensation into the environmental case. Land compensation has its own forum, and including it weakens the environmental application.
• Complaining only to the contractor. The contractor answers to the project authority. Write to the project director, the DM and the State Board.

Before you take action on a highway project

Related guides

If the project has an EC but is ignoring it, see our guide on what to do when EC conditions are not followed. When you are ready to approach the tribunal, how to file a case in the NGT explains the practical steps.