Question: National Green Highways Mission was started on-
(a) 5 July 2016
(b) 4 July 2016
(c) 2 July 2016
(d) 1 July 2016
Ans: (d)
Related facts:
- On 1 July 2016 Union Minister of Road Transport & Highways and Shipping Nitin Gadkari launched the National Green Highways Mission in New Delhi.
- It includes plantation drive on 1,500 km of National Highways at a cost of about Rs 300 crore.
- The Mission will employ 15,000 people.
- This project may even be linked with the NREGA scheme.
- The afforestation is expected to help in sequestering approximately 12 lakh mt carbon annually.
- It will be useful for agriculture and rural economy.
- Under the Green Highways Project, the government has made it mandatory to set aside 1 per cent of the total project cost of any NH contract to a Green Fund corpus that will be used for plantation purposes.
- The Vision document, comprising strategy, mission and action plan for 2016-2026, focuses on core issues, future roadmaps and success indicators for effective implementation of Green Highways Project.
- The government aims to expand the network of national highways to 2 lakhs km from present length of 1 Lakhs Km.
Reference:
http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=146720
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/govt-launches-green-highways-policy/article7702950.ece
http://www.livemint.com/Politics/YLIA9Ue6Yn4Jxvlg7iMtYP/Nitin-Gadkari-kickstarts-national-green-highways-mission.html