➔ Green Highways India's Journey Towards Sustainable Road Infrastructure (UPSC/RAS/PSI) Current Affairs {Economy}

Nodal Ministry / Authority- Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) / National Highways Authority of India (NHAI)

Decadal Network Growth- India's National Highway (NH) network expanded by approximately 61%, increasing from 91,287 km in 2014 to 1,46,572 km by March 2026, demanding a corresponding shift toward environmentally resilient road construction.
Statutory Genesis (2015 Policy)- Greening of the national corridors is governed by the Green Highways (Plantation, Transplantation, Beautification and Maintenance) Policy, 2015.
Core Environmental Objectives- Formulated to mitigate particulate matter and automotive emissions, arrest embankment soil erosion, moderate microclimatic ambient radiation, and suppress traffic noise.
Community & Multi-Stakeholder Execution- Engages local Self-Help Groups (SHGs), private developers, State Forest Departments, Forest Development Corporations, and regional contractors to execute roadside afforestation.
Dedicated Institutional Oversight- Operates a centralized Plantation Cell under NHAI headquarters coordinating with Regional Offices to supervise plantation health and corridor landscaping.
Local Economic Inclusivity- Links green development with rural livelihood creation by employing fringe-village communities for nursery maintenance, sapling plantation, and long-term watering.

Five-Year Plantation Quantum- More than 3.61 crore saplings have been planted across approximately 1.32 lakh km of National Highways over the last five years (as of July 2026).
Miyawaki Urban Afforestation- Adopts the Japanese Miyawaki technique ("pot plantation method") for space-constrained rights-of-way planting diverse native saplings closely to promote up to 10 times faster growth (e.g., Sonkatch Toll Plaza, NH-46, Madhya Pradesh).
Mandatory Right of Way (RoW) Green Threshold- Under NHAI's September 2026 updated guidelines, projects qualify for Provisional Completion Certification only if a minimum of 80% of the available RoW earmarked for greening is fully planted.
Strict 90% Survival Benchmark- Mandates that planted saplings maintain at least a 90% verified survival rate during pre-commissioning inspections and across the entire Operations and Maintenance (O&M) concession period.
Compensatory Afforestation & Transplantation- Combines compensatory afforestation mandates with mechanized root-ball tree transplantation for mature canopies requiring removal during widening.
Green Highways Excellence Awards- Incentivizes concessionaires based on canopy survival and native species selection; top honors awarded to Chilakaluripet Bypass on NH-16 (Avenue), Hyderabad-Yadgiri section on NH-163 (Median), and Jamtha Clover Leaf Oxygen Bird Park on NH-44, Nagpur (Land Parcels).

Institutional Space Collaboration- Developed by NHAI in technical collaboration with ISRO's National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) under a formal tripartite institutional framework.
Release of Baseline Report (2025–26)- Published the first Annual Report on the National Highways Green Cover Index (NH-GCI) 2025–26, providing India's first quantitative, satellite-verified assessment of roadside biomass.
Satellite Multispectral Sensing- Employs high-resolution multispectral imagery (5.8m LISS-IV sensor onboard Resourcesat-2/2A and cross-validated with Cartosat-2S) to detect vegetation chlorophyll signatures within the highway buffer.
Macro Coverage Footprint- Evaluated nearly 30,000 kilometres of National Highways under the O&M phase across 24 States, capturing pre-monsoon and post-monsoon changes.
Granular 1-km Segmented Indexing- Calculates the Green Cover Index as a percentage value at a 1-kilometre resolution on both flanks, categorizing stretches into Poor, Moderate, Good, and Very Good.
Bhuvan Geoportal Integration- Integrates all geo-tagged field verification photos and remote sensing data onto ISRO’s Bhuvan Web GIS platform to maintain transparent, auditable digital records.

Import Vulnerability of Petroleum Bitumen- Conventional asphalt paving relies heavily on petroleum bitumen ("black gold"), of which India currently imports nearly 50% of its national requirements.
Indigenous Bio-Bitumen via Pyrolysis- Developed jointly by CSIR-CRRI (New Delhi) and CSIR-IIP(Dehradun), utilizing post-harvest paddy/rice straw as raw biomass feedstock to curb open stubble burning.
Binder Replacement & Refining Chemistry- Converts pelletized crop residue via fast pyrolysis into high-grade bio-oil, which is blended with conventional viscosity-grade bitumen to replace 20% to 30% of petroleum-derived binders.
Demonstrated Field Commercialization- Successfully paved a 100-metre operational trial stretch on the Jorabat-Shillong Expressway (NH-40) in Meghalaya; India became the first nation to scale this technology to commercial standards within a single operational year.
Multi-Value By-Product Streams- Pyrolysis processing also yields combustible fuel gases, organic bio-pesticide fractions, and high-purity carbon bio-char used in battery anodes and soil remediation.
Industrial Waste Utilization in Pavements- Integrates coal thermal fly ash and pond ash in high embankment fills, alongside Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement (RAP), steel slag, crumb rubber from scrap tyres, and Construction & Demolition (C&D) aggregates.

"Trees for Bees" Pollinator Corridors- Conceptualized along segments of the Delhi-Amritsar-Katra Expressway, planting nectar-rich native flowering species across consecutive seasons to sustain honeybees and wild pollinators.
Microclimatic Buffers- Multi-tier roadside avenue plantings deflect crosswinds, lower urban heat island effects across expressway asphalt, and reduce headlight glare on oncoming traffic.
Andhra Pradesh Avenue Footprint- Planted approximately 18 lakh seedlings between 2010 and 2025 across avenue and median stretches, setting a target of 3.86 lakh saplings for FY 2026–27.
Ek Ped Maa Ke Naam Integration- Aligns local communities and highway authorities with nationwide environmental campaigns, planting thousands of shade and fruit trees at toll plazas and wayside rest stops.
Water Harvesting & Slope Stabilization- Dense shrub canopies and root-binding grasses prevent monsoon landslips along hilly embankments while recharging local roadside groundwater aquifers.
Alignment with Net Zero 2070- Combines carbon sequestration from 3.6+ crore trees with reduced embodied emissions from bio-bitumen and recycled slag, advancing India's Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).

Source: PIB