Shimla: In a major relief to the Himachal Pradesh Government, the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India has allowed diverting forest land for non-forest purposes under the Forest Conservation Act, 1980 (FCA) and the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 (FRA) in respect of projects appended with the interlocutory applications.

A State Government spokesperson informed here on Thursday that the 103 projects appended with the interlocutory include cases of 63 roads, 13 electric projects, one airport, three Anaj Mandi’s and Sabji mandi projects, four college buildings, one hospital, four bus stands, one market Yard, two railways lines, one warehouse for storage of EVMs, one weather radar, one ropeway, one helipad, two mining, one parking, two hot mix plants, one police post and one NDRF.

He said that projects under FRA, 2006 include cases of 13 community centres, 268 roads projects, 11 schools, 19 drinking water supply schemes and water pipelines, 5 minor irrigation canal or rainwater harvesting structures, 10 health institutions, three skill up-gradation and vocational training centres and one fair price shop.