MUMBAI: The Maharashtra government will soon rebuild a 2-km four-lane section of the National Highway 17 to Goa right through a core forest area keeping the safety of wild animals in mind. The stretch - perhaps a first in the country - will have facilities for animals, including leafy underpasses and ladders to cross over to the other side.

The plan is to keep the animals' natural habitat intact, which otherwise gets divided when a road splits a jungle, leaving even plants with no scope to grow transversely.

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On Tuesday, the state got a crucial nod from the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) to widen Panvel-Goa-Kochi Highway - NH17 - from two lanes at present to four lanes through the Karnala bird sanctuary near Panvel. The permission, though, has come with riders.

The road development authorities - the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) and the state public works department - will have to create seven big underpasses, each three-by-three-metre wide, to allow animals to move across freely and safely. These concrete tunnels will be layered with natural soil so that they resemble natural caves. There will also be around five monkey ladders atop the highway. These structures will be constructed in such a way as to keep the biodiversity untouched.

Sources said 2% of the project cost, or around Rs 20 crore of the earmarked Rs 1,000 crore, would be spent on wildlife conservation and management as well as their monitoring and safety. The stretch will get proper fencing to stop vehicles from entering the core zone.

Both NHAI and PWD had reapplied for clearance to the NBWL standing committee after the body initially refused them permission to tamper with the existing width of the road in the stretch inside the core jungle. Road authorities expressed their inability for construction in the absence of permission for widening, citing financial non-feasibility.

Currently, NHAI and PWD have awarded the contract for the 84km section of the highway from Palaspe to Indapur for four-laning. However, permission on nearly 22km through the Karnala area, including its 2km core area, was awaited. While the ministry of environment and forests granted permission for 20km, the core stretch was to be cleared by NBWL.

There has already been a two-year delay in road work after a contract was given out. Work on only 25km of the remaining 62km stretch has been undertaken as there are loan issues with banks. The Panvel-Indapur stretch is estimated at Rs 1,000 crore.

"Some formalities are to be completed now. We have to get the final permission from the Supreme Court for the 2km widening in the core area of the sanctuary and we are still to get the National Green Tribunal (NGT) permission for the remaining 64km. As these formalities and bank permissions are sorted, we will take some time for clearing, acquisition, encroachment and utility shifting issues. If this gets an all-clear in the next four months, we will be able to start work by the year-end and finish it by December 2016," said a senior NHAI engineer who did not wish to be named.

The NH17 stretch from Panvel to Zara in Sindhudurg was taken up for widening following several fatal accidents. The estimated cost of the 455km stretch is Rs 4,000 crore. Of this entire road, only 84km have been awarded for development; the rest is at the planning stage and will be up for bidding once the acquisition of land gets over. "According to norms, wherever 80% acquisitions and required permissions are in place, the contract can be awarded to start work. This has delayed work in the absence of required acquisition The toll collection can be started by the developer only after completing 75% of the road work," said sources.

The NBWL had approved the widening of NH-17 in December on the condition that while carrying out the work the NHAI would restrict itself to the road beyond 1km on both sides of the boundary of the sanctuary. The condition meant there would be no widening in the core area of the sanctuary. The sanctuary has a 10-km eco-sensitive zone around it. The NBWL had also restricted the speed within the sanctuary to 30kmph. The committee in its earlier order had directed the setting up of speed breakers, signals, barriers and channelization of traffic within existing lanes of the road passing through the sanctuary to facilitate a smooth but controlled flow. "The entire area is a high rainfall area. Hence proper measures to prevent flooding of the road, landslide etc should be taken in the sanctuary," NBWL had said.

NHAI officials said they had earlier considered a flyover instead of road widening, but did not find it feasible. "The flyover alone would cost Rs 125 crore, which we can not fit into the budgeted cost," said an official.