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Surat-Chennai economic corridor trips over proposed greenfield section

2022-08-25

The 1,271 km Surat-Chennai Expressway, which connects Gujarat, Maharashtra, Telangana, and Tamil Nadu via Nasik, Ahmednagar, Solapur, Kalaburgi, Kurnool, Kadappa, and Tirupati, has hit an environmental snag.

The planned Rs 140 billion Surat-Chennai economic corridor project is meeting hurdles over its projected 290 km long greenfield Surat-Nashik-Ahmednagar stretch, just months before the Gujarat assembly elections. This section is located in the ecologically vulnerable Western Ghats.

The Union Environment Ministry's Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) for Infrastructure Projects has recommended that the present National Highway alignment be upgraded rather than passing through "virgin and ecologically fragile new regions of Western Ghat lands." The remarks were made to the stakeholder ministry/department during a meeting on July 21-22.

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