Jammu, July 10: The Jammu and Kashmir Forest department is planting nearly 50,000 trees along 100 km long Jammu-Pathankote Highway in the coming months.
 Official sources said as thousands of trees were cut down during the upgradation of the road to four lane, the department has decided to compensate the damage by launching a plantation drive on it.
 The four laning of the road was initiated by the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) in 2004.
 Sources said nearly Rs 70 lakh had been released by the government to start the plantation. As per the project, around 40,000 trees of different varieties will be planted in the first phase on either side of the highway from Lakhanpur to Jammu, while more than 10,000 trees will be planted in second phase, sources said.
 In the first phase, 25-kilometre long Narwal to Vijaypur road stretch of the Highway is being taken up while the remaining 65 kilometres portion of the NH-1 from Vijaypur to Lakhanpur will be taken up in the second and third phase.
 “The plantation drive will help to maintain green spaces along the highway. We have accorded priority to the priority so that trees cut during the expansion of the roads are replaced by new trees”, said the Forest and Environment Minister, Mian Altaf.
 Altaf said it would also help in checking the environmental pollution along the highway, which is being used by thousands of vehicles per day to enter Jammu and Kashmir.
 “The Narwal-Vijaypur stretch is being taken up during Phase-I as major four-laning works on this section has already been completed while work on other sections-Lakhanpur-Hiranagar, Hiranagar-Vijaypur and Narwal-Sidhra – was still going on and will be completed in this month”, said an official.
 Under the plan, forest department will take the responsibility of the trees for three years after which NHAI will take over the maintenance job.
 Under the Central guidelines, standing instructions, trees cut during the execution of any national project, the agencies have to plant three times the trees axed during the project.
 NH 1A, is a Highway in North India that connects the Kashmir to Jammu and the rest of India. The northern terminal is in Uri in Jammu & Kashmir and the southern terminal is in Jalandhar.

Lastupdate on : Sat, 10 Jul 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
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