The Union government has cleared the diversion of 237 hectares of forest land for a proposed corridor connecting the Vadhavan port to National Highway 48 in Maharashtra’s Dahanu-Palghar region, the Hindustan Times reported on Wednesday.

The clearance was granted in March during a meeting of a regional empowered committee of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change in Nagpur.

The Vadhavan port, being developed by the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority and the Maharashtra Maritime Board in Palghar district, will be the country’s first offshore port and is designed to handle ultra-large container vessels.

A proposal for an eight-lane highway linking the port to National Highway 48 was submitted by the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority on February 24, the newspaper cited the minutes of the meeting as having said. The port will also be connected to the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway.

The corridor will pass through the Dahanu and Palghar talukas.

The total area proposed for the highway is 606.6 hectares, which includes 237 hectares of forest land and 369.5 hectares of non-forest land, the Hindustan Times reported. The project also includes 13.7 hectares of private forest land and 9.2 hectares of mangrove area.

The forest land being diverted for the proposed corridor is home to 29,923 trees, largely deciduous and mangrove vegetation, the Hindustan Times cited the minutes of the...

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