377 Himachal roads stuck under forest act

Shimla : Work has not been able begin to build 377 roads across Himachal Pradesh as the state government does not have permission to do so under the forest conservation act(FCA) .

Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh told the state assembly here Thursday that a top forest officer had been deputed to coordinate between the state’s public works department and the environment and forest department at the Centre .

These roads fall in all the districts of the state . Mandi district leads with 132 roads followed by Shimla with 85 roads .

On the issue of limestone mines in the mine rich Sirmaur district the industries minister Mukesh Agnihotri told the house there were currently ten limestone mines in operation , while 39 mines had been closed .

“In the last three years 39,78,902 metric tonnes of limestone had been extracted . And 16,34,449 tonnes from the operational ten mines,” the minister said .