The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has issued comprehensive guidelines tightening compliance norms for plantation works along National Highway projects. The new regulations mandate that plantation and landscaping are integral components of highway development and overall project completion, requiring strict adherence to contractual obligations under the Green Highways Policy, 2015 and IRC:SP:21-2009 guidelines.
A key provision introduces minimum thresholds for issuance of Provisional Certificate of Completion (PCC) or Provisional Commercial Operation Date (PCOD). Plantation works will only be considered compliant when undertaken on at least 80% of the available Right of Way earmarked for plantation, with planted saplings recording a minimum survival rate of 90% at the time of official inspection. Any shortfall beyond the 80% threshold must be highlighted with specific timelines for completion, and appropriate financial withholdings as per the relevant Contract/Concession Agreement will be enforced until balance plantation is completed.
NHAI has strengthened maintenance requirements during the Operations and Maintenance (O&M) period. The release of O&M/annuity payments in Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC), Hybrid Annuity Mode (HAM), and Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) Annuity projects, as well as maintenance compliance assessment in BOT-Toll projects, will be subject to maintaining a minimum 90% survival rate throughout the O&M period. The guidelines mandate timely plant casualty replacement with plants of similar age and growth to maintain uniformity and continuity of plantation along highway corridors.
Before processing O&M/annuity payments or certifying maintenance compliance, NHAI will seek technical assistance from environment and plantation experts to verify field-level compliance and ensure adherence to prescribed plant survival standards. These revised guidelines address NHAI's earlier observations that plantation development was often not accorded due importance at the time of issuing PCC/PCOD, reinforcing the authority's commitment to integrate environmental sustainability and plantation management into core implementation and maintenance frameworks of National Highway projects.