PM Modi to inaugurate wildlife-friendly highway projects in Chhattisgarh | List of other such initiatives

PM Modi will inaugurate the construction of three National Highway projects in Chhattisgarh, including a 2.8 km long tunnel with animal passes.

Published on: Jul 6, 2023, 15:58:44 IST

By Shishir Gupta

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to visit Chhattisgarh on Friday, where he will inaugurate the construction of three National Highway projects for the Chhattisgarh section of the 6-lane Greenfield Raipur - Visakhapatnam corridor. A notable aspect of these projects is the inclusion of a 2.8 km long, 6-lane tunnel equipped with 27 animal passes and 17 monkey canopies in the Udanti Wildlife Sanctuary area, allowing unhindered movement of wildlife.

The 6-lane Greenfield Raipur - Visakhapatnam corridor will have animal passes.

“It has been the vision of PM Modi to minimise the impact of highway development on wildlife,” an official statement said.

This dedicated infrastructure for wildlife safety and preservation is integrated into many highway development projects across India. An example of this approach is the Delhi-Dehradun Economic Corridor, where PM Modi laid the foundation stone in December 2021. This corridor will feature Asia's largest wildlife elevated corridor spanning 12 km, facilitating unrestricted movement for wildlife.

The National Highways will have monkey canopies.

Here is the compiled and comprehensive list of similar projects that emphasise the development of dedicated infrastructure for wildlife along with the construction of National Highways/Expressways.

1. Haridwar-Dehradun Section of NH-58 & 72 731 m combined structure in Motichur Corridors, 2-Elephant Underpasses at Lal Tappar & Teen Pani on NH-72 and NH-58

2. Ganeshpur-Dehradun NH-72A 4 underpasses, 11.6 km elevated corridor, 360 m tunnel

3. MP/MH-Seoni Section of NH-7 1400-meter elevated corridor, multiple underpasses, noise barrier

4. MP/MH Border to Mansar Section of NH-7 3 animal underpasses, structures, minor bridges, culverts

5. Delhi-Vadodara Expressway in Rajasthan NH-148N 2.7 km elevated corridor, animal underpasses, cut-cover

6. VME Phase II Land Bridge/Animal overpass, dedicated animal crossings, vehicular underpasses

7. SPUR of VME Land Bridge/Animal overpass, dedicated animal crossings, vehicular underpasses

8. Raipur-Vishakhpatnam in Chhattisgarh 2.79 km tunnel, 27 underpasses, monkey ladder 17

9. Raipur-Vishakhpatnam in Orissa 2 tunnels (6.29 km), 14 underpasses, monkey ladder

10. Raipur-Vishakhpatnam in Andhra Pradesh Viaduct cum elephant underpasses

11. Chenani-Nashri Tunnel 8.98 km tunnel, 1.91 km approaches

12. Quazigund - Banihal Tunnel 8.45 km tunnels, 6.90 km approaches

13. Ramban-Banihal 6 tunnel of 2.967 km length

14. Bangalore-Vijayawada 3.75 km tunnel, 2.5 km viaducts, underpasses

15. Panvel-Indapur Section of NH-17 (Old) NH-66 (New) 4 underpasses, 19 box culverts, monkey ladder

16. Gwalior-Shivpuri section of NH-3 Elevated corridor and underpass 5.5 km passing through the wildlife sanctuary

17. Gujarat-MP Border to Indore Section of NH-59 Underpass, fencing for 9.04 km through wildlife sanctuary

18. Varanasi-Kolkata in Jharkhand Total 82 structures in Jharkhand Elevated corridor, underpass, viaduct, increased bridge lengths

19. Varanasi-Kolkata in Bihar Tunnel, elevated corridor

20. Kaithalghat-Simla Tunnel

21. Hapur-Garhmukteshwar Section of NH-24 Underpass, tunnel

22. 6-laning of Vadakkanchery-Thrissur section of NH47 Increase the length of 1 Major bridge Tunnel - 1.0 Km

23. Belgaum-Khanpur Section of NH-4A (Dandeli Wildlife Sanctuary) 05 underpasses, increased dimension of culverts and bridges, noise and light barrier

24. Yamunanagar-Panchkula section of NH-73 2 eco-ducts, fencing, increased dimension of culverts and bridges, noise barrier

25. Gujarat-MP Border to Jalgaon section of NH-6 Underpass, monkey ladder, fencing, increased dimension of culverts and bridges, noise barrier

26. Cuttack-Angul section of NH-42 Underpass, fencing, increased dimension of culverts and bridges

27. Panikuli-Rimuli section of NH-215 6 underpasses, fencing, increased dimension of culverts and bridges

28. Rimuli-Rajamunda section of NH-215 2 underpasses, fencing, increased dimension of culverts and bridges

29. Uncha Nagla Dholpur Section of NH-123 Underpass, fencing, increased dimension of culverts and bridges

30. Chhatisgarh/MH Border-Wanganga Bridge of NH-6 3 underpasses, fencing, increased dimension of culverts and bridges

31. Four Laning of Solapur Bijapur section of NH 13 3 underpasses

32. Haridwar-Nagina underpasses, elevated corridor

33. NH 347BG- Indore to Balwara 2 tunnels, 4 viaduct having length of 1590 m for animal crossing. Increase in length of 4 nos. Major bridges

34. Heron River to Sindur section NH-12 3 underpass 1 elevated corridor, increasing the length of box culvert

35. 4 laning of 12 km stretch in Ratapani Wildlife Sanctuary Elevated corridor, underpasses and increasing the dimension of box culvert

36. Ranchi-Jamshedpur section 7 underpasses

37. Mancherial to Telangana/Maharashtra Border 2 underpasses

38. Nagpur- Umred Bhiwapur Elevated corridor

39. Bengaluru Hasan to Mangalore NH-75 2 underpasses

40. Bengaluru-Mysore Madikeri -Mangalore NH-275 2 underpasses, 3 overpasses (ecoduct)

41. Chitradugra-Hospet- Bijapur NH-50 5 underpasses

42. Tunikur to Shivamogga NH-206 7 underpasses

43. Khammam to Mangalore NH-565 Increasing the dimension of box culvert

44. Rewa to Jabalpur Section 5 underpasses

45. Itarsi Betul 5 underpasses, elevated corridor, overpass/ Eco-duct

46. Gwalior Shivpuri Section 9 underpasses and elevated corridor

47. Sanchore to Santalpur 1 elevated corridor and 12 underpasses

48. Sawaimadhopur- Sheopur 9 underpasses

49. Ambikapur-Bilaspur 8 underpasses

50. Kawardha —Raipur New NH-30 6 underpasses

51. Delhi-Katra in Punjab Increase the length of major bridge with longer span and viaduct

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Shishir Gupta
Shishir Gupta is Executive Editor at Hindustan Times and one of India's top journalists covering national security, strategic affairs, foreign policy and geopolitics. Over the past three decades, he has extensively reported on India's military, diplomatic and security landscape, covering every major conflict and national security challenge, from the 1999 Kargil War and the 2020 East Ladakh standoff to Operation Sindoor in 2025. He has also covered major terror attacks, including the IC-814 hijacking, the 26/11 Mumbai attacks and the 2025 Pahalgam terror strike, along with numerous Pakistan-backed terrorist incidents in the Kashmir Valley and across India. He has reported on national and state elections for more than three decades. A recognised authority on strategic affairs, Gupta has covered India's nuclear programme since the Pokhran-II (Shakti series) tests in May 1998 and has written extensively on global nuclear issues, Indian diplomacy and the country's expanding global outreach. He has also reported widely on international conflicts and terrorism, with a special focus on the Indian subcontinent. Gupta has interviewed Prime Minister Narendra Modi more than four times, including Modi's first interview with the print media after becoming Prime Minister in May 2014. His other interviews include three with the Dalai Lama, as well as conversations with Benjamin Netanyahu, Amit Shah, Yogi Adityanath, S. Jaishankar, Nirmala Sitharaman and Piyush Goyal. He is the author of Indian Mujahideen: The Enemy Within (Hachette, 2011) and Himalayan Face-off: Chinese Assertion and Indian Riposte (Hachette, 2014). He was awarded the Chevening-Wolfson Joint Scholarship at Wolfson College, University of Cambridge, UK, in 1998 and participated in the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) of the US State Department in 2006. He received the Ben Gurion Prize from Israel in 2011 and the K. Subrahmanyam Prize for Strategic Studies in 2015 from the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA). Since 2024, he has hosted Point Blank, Hindustan Times' weekly YouTube show on global geopolitics.Read More

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