T.S. Sivagnanam, J.

In this batch of Writ Petitions, the challenge is to the notification issued under the provisions of the National Highways Act, 1956, (hereinafter referred to as the ‘Act’), proposing to acquire lands for the Salem-Chennai Eight Lane Highway Green Field Project. The project is part of the ‘Bharatmala Pariyojana’, a project conceived by the Central Government. The project is termed as “Green Field Project”, as it is a new road to be formed, while widening of existing highway is termedas ‘Brown Field Project’.

2. The petitioners before us can be categorised into two, namely, those whose lands are sought to be acquired for the proposed project and public interest litigants who are opposing the land acquisition proceedings. The authorised officer for the project is the District Revenue Officer of the concerned District through which the proposed project is to be implemented. The authorised officer/s issued notification under Section 3A(1) of the Act stating that the Central Government is satisfied that for a public purpose the lands owned by the petitioners are required for development of a Green Field Highway Project and accordingly, declared its intention to acquire the lands of the petitioners/land owners.

3. This notification has been challenged by the petitioners, whose lands are sought to be acquired as well as the public interest litigants. The objections raised by the persons, whose lands are sought to be acquired could be summarised as follows:-

It is submitted that the Government of India has proposed the subject project at an estimated cost of about Rs.10,000 crores to develop a 276kms highway connecting Chennai and Salem. There are three highways between Chennai and Salem i.e., NH48 and NE2 passing through Chennai, Kancheepuram, Vellore, Krishnagiri, Dharmapuri and Salem with the length of 352.70kms with 4/6 Lane configuration. The second route being NH48 and SH18 (New NH179A) passing through the same districts with the length of 331.89kms with 2/4 Lane configuration and the third route NH32, NH132, NH38, NH79 and NE-2 passing through Chennai, Villupuram and Salem Districts with the length of 334.28kms with 2/4Lane configuration. The petitioners would contend that the bottleneck lies between Chennai to Vandalur and Chennai to Kancheepuram in these three routes and if the said Section is widened, the same shall reduce the travelling time not only between Chennai and Salem, but also Chennai to other important cities and towns in Tamil Nadu and the neighbouring States. The petitioners would contend that the proposed project is in noway going to ease the congestion as the travel from Chennai outer ring road to end of Salem bye-pass by all the existing roads would take the same travel time and the newly proposed project highway will reduce the distance only by 40kms without taking into account distance from Chennai to Vandalur bye-pass and Salem town to Salem bye-pass and if these stretches are included, the distance is more or less as that of the other roads. It is further contended that the proposed route of the project highway passes through Forest land, hilly areas, fertile agriculture lands and residential areas and therefore, the land owners and the public of the respective areas and the environmental activist have raised strong objections to the proposed project highway.

4. The petitioners would state that the Project Director of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) submitted terms of reference to the Ministry of Environment and Forest and Climate Change (MoEF) on 19.04.2018, the Expert Appraisal Committee for project of MoEF in its 189th meeting held on 07.03.2018, considered the terms of reference relating to the proposed project and recommended the Environmental Impact Assessment with project specific and the general terms of reference. While environmental clearance was pending, the Central Government authorised the competent authorities who are the District Revenue Officers of the