No progress in reinstallation of missing boundary pillars along Kiratpur-Manali highway: Report

Kullu: The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has failed to demarcate govt land along the Kiratpur–Manali highway by reinstalling missing boundary pillars, raising the risk of encroachments, a state forest department committee has reported.The panel, constituted in June last year and headed by the assistant conservator of forests (ACF) to verify Right of Way (ROW) pillars, found no progress in the repair or reinstallation of damaged and missing markers in the diverted forest land stretch of the highway. The ROW pillars mark the exact width and boundary of the acquired land along the highway.
In a recent letter, Bilaspur Forest Division ACF Varun Barwal also informed divisional forest officer (DFO) Rajiv Kumar that despite repeated communications and reminders issued to the NHAI, Mandi, regarding the installation of boundary pillars, the concerned agency neither responded nor initiated the repair work.This inaction poses a serious concern, as it may lead to possible encroachment in the future, and is a clear violation of condition 18 stipulated in the final approval given for the diversion of forest land for the Kiratpur-Manali highway project by the ministry of environment, forest and climate change (MoEFCC).In his letter, the ACF also suggested "necessary action against the NHAI" for "continuous non-compliance and lack of cooperation."Last month, on Jan 6, Mritunjay Madhav, conservator of forests, Bilaspur Forest Circle, directed NHAI project director, Mandi, Varun Chari, to immediately undertake the repair and reinstallation of all missing and damaged boundary pillars without any further delay, as their absence poses a serious risk of encroachments on forest land along the highway.Madhav also ordered the NHAI project director to ensure compliance and submit a detailed action taken report to his office, while warning that failure to comply with his directions would invite appropriate action under relevant provisions of the law.It may be mentioned that the Himachal Pradesh high court also last year raised concern over the encroachments along the highway, during the hearing on a petition filed by Madan Lal Sharma, the general secretary of the Fourlane Visthapit and Prabhavit Samiti (FVPS), an organisation that works for people displaced by highway projects. The HC observed that encroachments along the highway endangered the safety of commuters and pedestrians, as illegal constructions created accident-prone black spots.According to Sharma, encroachments sprung up on the entire section of the national highway from Manali to Kiratpur, primarily due to the failure of the NHAI to demarcate the govt land."The NHAI identified 91 illegal encroachments along the highway that fall in Bilaspur district, but this number is just the tip of the iceberg. As there is no proper demarcation of the land, encroachers are grabbing the forest land along the highway, with no one to stop them," said Sharma."This highway was opened in 2023, but even three years later, not even a single pillar was installed by the NHAI in accordance with rules in the forest land diverted for the road project, despite repeated instructions issued by the forest department," added Sharma. MSID:: 128558591 413 |