To minimise wildlife-traffic accidents, animal bridges have been planned across the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway
Bengaluru: With a view to minimise man-animal conflict on highways, the Union government is planning animal bridges over the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway.
These will be based on similar animal bridges in the Netherlands.
Such animal bridges will lessen the conflicts and help ameliorate disturbances to the Ranthambore Wildlife Corridor connecting Ranthambhore and Mukundra (Darrah) wildlife sanctuaries in Rajasthan.
As quoted by Times of India, the plan has been approved and forwarded by the Rajasthan government to the central wildlife board and is likely to be taken up next week. The NHAI has given the work to an infrastructure major and the agreement would be signed next week.
Quoting a source, the website added, “There will be no chance of any conflict as the wild animals will get such passage at every 500 metres interval. The passages will be developed as part of a forest corridor with trees so that animals find it natural.”
The website further added the source as saying that the NHAI is keen to project it as a sustainable model of development and for mitigation of the wildlife-traffic conflict.
More on the Expressway:
The website has also published more information on the Expressway:
The Expressway is conceived as a 1,320 km greenfield project with an estimated cost of around Rs 90,000 crore. While at present, it takes 24 hours to travel from Mumbai to Delhi via the National Highway 8, this new expressway is expected to cut short the travel time to just 13 hours.
The overall development work of the expressway will be completed in 51 packages. The expressway will pass through a slew of underdeveloped regions such as Mewat, Ratlam, and Dahod. It will also pass through multiple states such as Haryana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, and Maharashtra.
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