This is a quasi-equity investment in an InvIT that will acquire, own, operate and maintain operational road assets in India. IFC’s environmental and social due diligence indicates that the investment will have impacts which must be managed in a manner consistent with the following Performance Standards (PSs):

•      PS 1: Assessment and Management of Environmental and Social Risks and Impacts;
•      PS 2: Labor and Working Conditions;
•      PS 3: Resource Efficiency and Pollution Prevention;
•      PS 4: Community Health, Safety and Security;
•      PS 5: Land Acquisition and Involuntary Resettlement;
•      PS 6: Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Management of Living Natural Resources;
•      PS 7: Indigenous Peoples; and
•      PS 8: Cultural Heritage.

 This is considered as a category A project as per IFC's Policy on Social and Environmental Sustainability as: (a) the sector in which the InvIT will operate, roads and highways, is potentially high risk; (b) some of the five roads that may be transferred to InvIT are high risk and the ESDD indicates that there are risks and impacts related to: (i) residual/ balance land and right of way (RoW) acquisition with potential for physical and/or economic displacement in one of the roads; (ii) communities of indigenous peoples (IPs) in two roads; (iii) critical and natural habitat potentially affected by one of the roads; and (iv) cultural heritage; and (c) the pipeline of future assets and their associated risks and impacts are not known at this stage, and each asset to be acquired may have impacts of varying significance on one or more aspects that are contemplated in the PSs. 

 Environmental and Social Assessment and Management System/Policy

The company has an environment management manual (EMM) in place. The EMM includes the company's environmental policy and guidance on waste management, emergency response, roles & responsibilities related to EHS at the project level, and public communication, complaints and grievance handling. The key objectives of the environmental policy are to comply with all national regulations; to provide safe and healthy workplace for employees; minimization of potential impacts on environment and compliance with all environmental legislation; to undertake regular review and to ensure safe working conditions.

All SPVs have adopted Oriental's EMM for EHS management of their activities. Brief SOPs on carriageway solid waste management plan; oil/ chemical spill management; storm water management plan; avenue and median plantation and management plan; stakeholder engagement plan and emergency preparedness plan exist but are required to be reviewed and updated. Accordingly, the InvIT will develop and implement an Environmental and Social Management System (ESMS) which among other things will include environment, health, safety and social (EHSS) Policy aligned with IFC PSs (ESAP #1). The ESMS along with the EHSS policy will be applicable to IM, PM and all SPVs. The EHSS policy will specifically cover, among other aspects: compliance with local laws; adherence to good international industry practices (GIIP) as described in the applicable and relevant sections of the World Bank Group (WBG) Environment, Health and Safety (EHS) Guidelines or other or other internationally recognized sources as appropriate; occupational health and safety of employees and contract workers; addressing impacts on affected communities; stakeholder engagement and assessing and managing adverse E&S impacts.

The ESMS will cover all project phases starting from ESDD to O&M phase and will cover all InvIT's operations, including both the IM and PM as also all its subsidiary companies and road assets. The ESMS will be benchmarked to the national E&S regulations; IFC PSs; and the applicable and relevant sections of the WBG General EHS Guidelines, 2007 and the WBG EHS Guidelines for Toll Roads, 2007. More specifically, the ESMS will include SOPs for identification of risks and impacts during the O&M phase; a management program for identified risks and impacts; an appropriate E&S organization; procedures for stakeholder engagement and grievance redress; emergency response procedures; requirement for a legal register and compliance monitoring procedure; EHSS training procedures and calendar; a monitoring plan aligned with the management program and incorporating GIIP provisions; internal and external reporting plan; procedures for periodic internal and external reviews; and management review. Further, all SPVs will be required to ensure that permits and authorizations under all applicable laws are in place, current and valid.

Identification of Risk and Impacts

Typically, the concessioning authority: (a) undertakes E&S impact assessment benchmarked to national requirements except for roads that are less than 30 km and with a RoW of 60 m or less; (b) obtains the regulatory clearances; and (c) requires the concessionaire to adhere to the permitting conditions and environmental management plan. Further, since land is acquired by the concessioning authority and only leased to the concessionaire, all land acquisition related assessments and implementation of resettlement action plan (RAP) are undertaken directly by the concessioning authority.

The scope of construction activities is defined by the concessioning authority in CA. Certain changes in the original scope are undertaken after detailed technical survey and as part of detailed design work by the concessionaire. Additionally, at times, the concessioning authority requires the concessionaire to undertake construction activities not defined in the original scope of work in response to traffic and safety conditions but these are mostly confined within the project RoW.

The roads being transferred to InvIT are all operational roads and balance construction work as per the requirements under the CA (already described under project description section above) is yet to be completed. In addition, certain construction activities are currently under implementation on Hungund Hospet and Nagpur Betul as part of change of scope (other than the constructions activities mentioned in CA). All additional construction activities are accommodated within the existing RoW. The roads will undergo routine and major maintenance as per the frequency defined in the CA. The ongoing E&S risks and impacts with respect to seed assets are related to completion of remaining construction activities and any future construction; and routine & major maintenance of roads.

The company has completed third party ESDD of all assets; the ESDD involved collection of data on land acquisition, E&S performance of SPVs, identification of impacts on critical habitat and indigenous peoples and legal compliance with EHSS national requirements. In addition, in case of Nagpur Byepass, for a 37 km section, biodiversity assessments were reviewed and a critical habitat (CH) screening undertaken.

An environmental impact assessment (EIA) and RAP benchmarked to national requirements has been completed for Etawah Chakeri, Nagpur Betul and Nagpur Byepass. Additionally, an EIA has been completed for Indore- Khalghat. These documents (except for Etawah Chakeri) were reviewed as part of the ESDD process. Based on the findings of ESDD, an action plan has been developed by the third-party consultants for each of the road. As mentioned in ESAP #4, the InvIT will ensure and monitor implementation of the action plan as per the timeline proposed therein.

For all future assets, InvIT will, as part of its ESMS, implement specific procedures to assess risks and impacts associated with each asset it proposes to acquire. Accordingly, the ESMS to be developed as part of ESAP #1 will include formal procedures: to undertake ESDD of all future projects for acquisition against a set of defined criteria; for timely presentation of ESDD findings and recommendations by IM to appropriate decision authorities in the InvIT; defining the decision authority, decision processes and escalation mechanism linked to E&S risks; and to screen out assets that do not meet the eligibility criteria. The InvIT will, as part of ESDD, carry out a review of EHSS risks to the road asset including from outstanding litigation, or notices from regulatory authorities, or stakeholder concerns, which will inform the acquisition decision process and outcome. In case of assets where risks are identified in the ESDD, the InvIT will only consider those assets for acquisition in which it determines that the issues underlying the identified risks can be mitigated in accordance with the PSs.

Management programs

The proposed ESMS at InvIT will include detailed procedures for: (i) role and responsibility distribution between InvIT, IM, PM and SPVs; (ii) application of a set of defined screening and eligibility criteria to inform the asset acquisition decision process and outcome; (iii) pre- acquisition ESDD by a third party as per the defined screening and eligibility criteria; (iv) development, implementation, monitoring and, where required, quarterly third party review of corrective action plans based on ESDD findings; (v) SOPs for managing EHSS risks and impacts from remaining construction, and routine and major O&M of each road asset; (v) incident and accident handling, recording, reporting, investigation and analysis; (vi) appropriate E&S organization, responsibility and resource allocation; (vii) ongoing monitoring, reporting and management review of E&S performance; (viii) construction camps guidelines; (ix) stakeholder engagement and community grievance mechanism; (x) contractor management; (xi) the requirement for biannual internal and annual external review of the ESMS implementation at the InvIT, IM, PM and each SPV level; and (xii) EHSS reporting to the Board of Directors of the InvIT. While SOPs exists at the level of the company, these will be strengthened to address the EHSS risks associated with each phase, in compliance with IFC PSs.

Post- transfer of assets to InvIT, as mentioned at ESAP #2, all SPVs will implement an ESMS aligned with the InvIT's corporate EHSS policies and ESMS and specifically covering procedures as defined above. Further, all SPVs will be required to ensure that permits and authorizations under all applicable laws are in place, current and valid.

Being linear in nature, the road projects have the potential to cause significant and linearly spread impacts on land, communities, indigenous peoples, biodiversity and cultural heritage. Under ESAP #1, the ESMS will, therefore, include specific assessment requirements, recommendations and decision criteria with respect to these.

Organizational Capacity and Competency

While the company does not have an EHS department, the organizational structure of EHSS management is defined in the EMM. The key persons identified for compliance with EMM are director, toll plaza head, maintenance head, and site HR head. As indicated in ESAP #3, the InvIT will require both IM and PM to employ one fulltime senior level appropriately qualified environmental specialist and one senior level appropriately qualified social specialist. Further, for oversight and management of EHSS issues at the Project Entity level, the InvIT will require the entities to jointly employ sufficient number of qualified EHSS specialist in consultation with MBFS unit holders (i.e. multilateral or bilateral development financial institutions) or foreign government agencies or sovereign or sovereign related investors) who will be shared resources for the project entities. Additionally, for all roads (refer to PS 5 section) that are required to undertake SIA and implement LSP, a qualified social specialist will be hired. For undertaking ESDD of any new asset to be acquired, the InvIT will hire reputed third-party consultants. Additionally, annual third-party review will be carried out as per the terms of reference (ToR) to be developed as part of the ESMS.

The IM and PM EHSS team will be responsible for: managing ESDD process for all future assets; contributing to the acquisition decision process; completion of any impact assessments, ESIA updates or supplemental studies where required; ensuring implementation of any corrective action plan or ESMP; and overall oversight of ESMS implementation.

Monitoring & Reporting

As part of the ESMS (ESAP #1 & 2), the IM, PM and each SPV will develop a detailed monitoring and reporting plan for each road asset for: (a) construction phase where construction is underway; (b) normal operation and routine maintenance phase; and (c) major maintenance activity. The monitoring and reporting plan for each road asset will also be informed by the ESDD findings of respective assets and will include among other aspects monitoring and reporting on: status of implementation of action plan based on ESDD findings; emissions to air from diesel generator (DG) sets, hot mix plants or batching plants as relevant; ambient air quality; ambient noise levels at sensitive receptors; drinking water quality; hazardous wastes generated and disposed; other solid waste generated and disposed; health and safety data; traffic accidents; security and community relations incidents; training and drills; contractor compliance with labor laws and EHSS practices; stakeholder engagement; employee and community grievances and redress; community development initiatives; resource efficiency initiatives; median & avenue plantations; encroachment status and such other.

The IM and PM will, as part of the ESMS (ESAP # 1 & 5), implement procedures for annual third party and bi-annual internal review of the ESMS. The analysis of information from the monitoring and review programs will feed into periodic management system review process to assess efficacy of the ESMS and identify measures to further strengthen the ESMS.

 Human Resources Policies and Procedures

The activities of the trust will be carried out through IM and PM. The IM and PM will have their own employees and the exact number of potential employees is not known yet. In addition, each of the road asset SPV has between 80 to 200 employees comprised of around 40-80 toll collectors, 20-30 security personnel, 4-5 road patrol team, and balance management and accounting staff. Further, there are 10-15 contract workers employed on an average at each SPV for regular maintenance activity and it is expected that during major maintenance work every 5-7 years, 75-150 number of contract workers will be deployed. Major maintenance usually takes 12-18 months amount of time and is a labour-intensive exercise. The major maintenance work is mostly carried out by the sponsor through their team including skilled workforce and locally hired workforce (mostly unskilled and semi-skilled).

The sponsor's HR policy and procedures are developed as SOPs and are applicable to all OSE operations including the company, Oriental Tollways Pvt. Ltd and all its SPVs. The SOPs in the sponsor's HR policies cover general terms and conditions of services including recruitment & selection, probation period, confirmation of service, promotion, retirement, employee's code of conduct, and employee loan policy. The company has policies on prevention of sexual harassment and anti-bribery & corruption policy and whistle blower, non-employment of adolescent & child at work, equal opportunity and non-discrimination, and prevention of forced labour.

The HR policies and procedures applicable to the InvIT will be upgraded, as per ESAP # 6, to include updated policy and procedures on non-employment of adolescent & child at work, equal opportunity and non-discrimination, prevention of forced labour, employee grievance redress, retrenchment, worker accommodation, contractor and contract worker oversight, and occupational health and safety. The HR manual for the IM and PM will comply with PS2 and will be made available to all employees through the IM, PM and each SPV's intranet and also a handbook summarizing the policies and procedures will be made available to all employees. The sponsor's HR policies and procedures applicable to SPVs, duly upgraded to meet IFC PS2 provisions as mentioned at ESAP # 6, will be applicable to the IM, PM and each of the road asset SPVs.

As per ESAP # 3, the IM, PM and each of the road asset SPVs will put in place an appropriate organization with clearly defined roles and responsibilities for management of EHSS aspects as described under PS 1 and labour aspects. The HR team supported as required by the E&S team will be responsible for review and monitoring of contractors' performance, especially with respect to working conditions, workers' accommodation, OHS and protection of work force.

Working Conditions and Terms of Employment

The sponsor's SOPs which are applicable to all SPVs include policies and procedures for recruitment; training; employee benefits such as leave, loan and gifts; transfer; and separation. All employees of the SPVs are provided formal appointment letters describing the employment conditions.

The ESDD reports confirm that all employees work eight-hour shifts (three shifts in a day) and are generally not required to do overtime. However, it is reported that security staff at Hungund Hospet, and Nagpur Betul work twelve- hour shifts. As part of upgrade of HR policies and procedures, working conditions for all employees will be defined clearly and monitored through internal and third part EHSS reviews per ESAP #5.

Non-discrimination and Equal Opportunity

The company has a formal policy on non- discrimination and equal opportunities and this is applicable to all SPVs. Going forward, these will be made applicable to IM and PM as well.

Grievance Mechanism

There is an employee grievance mechanism. It will be upgraded in line with the PS2 provisions and it will be made accessible to all staff of IM, PM and each SPVs. The upgraded grievance mechanism will allow employees to raise anonymous complaints and will have provisions for confidentiality and non- retribution. With respect to its contractors, the PM and each SPV will ensure that a formal grievance mechanism is accessible to all workers and subcontractors (ESAP #6). The implementation and effectiveness of the grievance mechanism will be monitored by the InvIT through third party EHSS reviews (ESAP #5).

Protecting the Work Force

The company has formal policies on prevention of child labour and forced labour and this is applicable to all SPVs. This was confirmed by ESDD reports. Going forward, formal policies on prevention of child labour and forced labour will be included in the upgraded HR manual and will made applicable to IM and PM. All SPVs will contractually ensure that all its contractors also implement the same policy.

Workers Engaged by Third Parties

The company's third-party workers are limited to RoW maintenance and security. While most construction activities are carried out by the sponsor, some contractors are hired for executing certain specific tasks. All other activities such as toll collection, routine maintenance, etc. are carried out internally and/ or through subsidiaries. In case of Hungund Hospet, the tolling activities are undertaken by a third-party contractor. For RoW maintenance, local workers are hired on daily basis as per the requirement by maintenance contractors. Usually, the maintenance activity is carried out for a period of 20 days a month and the need of maintenance workers varies depending on the work involved. The usual practice is for the maintenance contractors to hire whichever worker is available on a given day. According to the ESDD reports, there no gross non- compliances with national requirements for labour.

Construction workers, where required, which are not local are provided accommodation within the construction camps. Construction camps observed at Hungund Hospet were found to be adequate but worker accommodation for remaining construction work at Nagpur Byepass lacked basic services. The construction work at Nagpur Byepass site has been completed as on date.

Going forward, IM, PM and all SPVs will ensure that all its contractors provide accommodation (except for the workers who come from the nearby villages on daily basis and prefer to commute daily from their residence), transportation, and basic services including water, cooking fuel, sanitation, and medical care for the workers working at site, in accordance with PS 2 requirements. These requirements will be included in the contractual agreements. The IM, PM and each SPV will further ensure that it has procedures and capacity in place to regularly review and monitor the performance of its contractors especially with respect to working conditions, workers' accommodation, OHS and protection of work force. Additionally, all SPVs will ensure that all contractors have HR policies and procedures that meet the requirements of relevant national laws and IFC PS2. Compliance with these requirements including with applicable statutory requirements will be monitored through half yearly internal and annual third party EHSS review (ESAP #5).

The InvIT shall ensure that the principles of non-discrimination and equal opportunity are adhered to by all contractors while engaging local subcontractor or contract workers (as included in ESAP # 2). As part of upgraded HR manual, IM and PM will develop a detailed code of conduct for construction workers to avoid or minimize risks and impacts related to interaction with the local population in the project's area of influence including code of conduct related to prevention of gender based violence and child abuse.

Occupational Health and Safety

All SPVs provide personal protective equipment (PPE) such as safety jackets, helmets, masks and gloves to staff and workers working, as required, at toll plaza and on RoW maintenance. However, the use of PPE was found to be inconsistent across SPVs. First aid and firefighting arrangement is available at toll plazas. Incident/ accident reporting in almost all SPVs is only limited to road accidents and recording & reporting of incidents/ accidents involving staff and workers is maintained across SPVs and requires effective monitoring.

Accordingly, the IM and PM will require all InvIT SPVs, as part of the ESMS, to put in place operational control procedures in line with GIIP for activities with identified OHS risks. The ESMS will also include asset specific procedures which will be developed based on the ESDD findings. In addition, the ESMS will have: a health and safety (H&S) Policy; H&S objectives; roles and responsibility allocation; safety committee composition and procedures; safety induction and training procedures; contractor/service provider safety evaluation and control; daily/ weekly asset safety investigations; accident investigation, reporting and corrective action procedures; and safe work procedures for various activities that exposes employees and contract workers to hazardous conditions. The safe work procedures will be backed by corresponding check lists for onsite physical situation checks. All SPVs will ensure usage of PPE, including by contractors' workforce and will also have a program to undertake periodic medical examination of workers especially those working as toll collectors.

Each SPV has para-medical staff and emergency medical facilities and ambulance together with facilities for administering first aid.   

 Resource Efficiency and GHG Emissions

Oriental has commenced a program to install solar panels at certain toll plazas and employee camp sites (residential colonies). In the Nagpur Byepass road, a 50-kW solar power plant has been set up for captive use. The InvIT will, as part of its ESMS, set specific resource and energy efficiency, water consumption reduction, and greenhouse gas (GHG) quantification and emission reduction targets for each road asset SPV. Accordingly, each SPV will include fuel and energy efficiency parameters in design and procurement of new equipment; undertake rainwater harvesting; reuse water and treated wastewater where possible; reuse materials in maintenance and resurfacing activity; implement measures to monitor energy consumption; install energy efficient lighting; install solar panels where feasible; and implement programs to reduce specific energy consumption.

Air Emissions and Ambient Air Quality

Emissions to air are expected from hot mix plant, batching plant and operations of [back up] DG sets at toll plazas and in camps. While the operation of hot mix plant and batching plant will be temporary only during maintenance activity and DG set operation is intermittent, InvIT, through IM, PM and SPVs, will ensure that the emissions meet GIIP including applicable and relevant sections of the WBG EHS Guidelines.

Noise

The practices related to noise monitoring vary between SPVs. In some SPVs the monitoring is undertaken only at toll plazas and in other SPVs at some non-toll plaza locations. The InvIT will, as part of the ESMS development of each SPV: (a) require an identification of sensitive human and wildlife receptors; (b) undertake noise monitoring at these locations; and (c) where noise levels exceed national standards and WBG EHS Guideline requirements, implement appropriate mitigation measures.

Water and Wastewater

Water requirement is limited to domestic use in residential colonies for staff and at toll plaza and to watering for avenue and median plantation. Typically, an SPV would use around 5 m3/day at toll plazas and about 50 m3/day in plantation work. In almost all assets, this requirement is met through directly extracted ground water or through purchased groundwater. The InvIT will, as part of the ESMS, include procedures to: (a) identify its roads that fall in safe, semi critical, critical and over exploited areas as per definition by the Central Groundwater Board; (b) for areas that fall within semi critical, critical and over exploited, InvIT will implement measures concerted to measure to minimize water use, treat and recycle all wastewater, implement rainwater harvesting, and to the extent feasible avoid using groundwater by identify alternate treated wastewater sources for plantation activities; and (c) in areas that fall in safe zone implement concerted measures to minimize water use and implement rainwater harvesting. While state of roadside drainage varies from road asset to road asset, there are instances where the storm water drains are poorly maintained. Each SPV will implement drainage inspection, repair and periodic maintenance procedures as part of the ESMS.

Solid Waste Management

In several SPVs, carriageway and drain solid waste and litter management requires improvement. Typically, only small quantities of non-bio-degradable waste is generated at the toll plazas, but significant amount of garbage may be generated from camps and highway food plazas. The InvIT will, as part of each SPV's ESMS, require the SPVs to undertake periodic carriage way cleaning and drain maintenance activities, which will result in significant quantities of non-biodegradable waste being generated. The InvIT will require each SPV to ensure that bio-degradable waste will be composted and used for plantation purposes. The InvIT will, as part of SPV's ESMS implementation, require each SPV to segregate and store non-biodegradable solid waste in a designated area, and dispose it through authorized contractors at municipal/government approved waste facilities.

Hazardous Materials and Waste

Each SPV has installed DG units of varying capacities at the toll plazas and the employee camps and stores diesel on site in uncontained and free access areas. At the sections visited, used lubricating oils from DG sets and from repairs of maintenance equipment were found to be stored in drums in uncontained areas. Other hazardous waste like used paint containers, batteries, empty fuel and lubricant drums were also stored in uncontained areas. The PM will, as part of each SPV's ESMS implementation, ensure that all hazardous material (fuel, lubricant oils, batteries etc.) and hazardous wastes handled/generated at site during operation are: stored under segregation and containment; handled/used with appropriate care and personal protective equipment; and hazardous waste is disposed through entities authorized to handle, recycle and dispose hazardous wastes. Any equipment and vehicle maintenance areas will be appropriately paved and have provisions for spill containment. Surface runoff from open maintenance areas will be separately collected and treated through an oil/water separator. Areas where fuels or other hazardous materials are stored will be constructed within secondary containment structures with access control and signage.

Pesticide Use and Management

Typically, SPVs use mechanical methods for pest management in median and avenue plantations. However, as part of the ESMS, this will be formalized into standard procedure to avoid or minimize use of chemical pesticides and herbicides and where necessary use those pesticides and herbicides only that meet the requirements of Performance Standard 3.

Pollution Prevention and Control

To address all issues identified above and as per ESAP # 2, the InvIT through its IM and PM, will ensure that all SPVs develop and implement ESMS procedures that are aligned with GIIP, including applicable and relevant WBG EHS Guidelines, for: equipment/material selection and operation to meet emission and energy efficiency norms; recycling and reuse of material in resurfacing; timing of maintenance activities to minimize pollution risk; management of emissions and discharges to air, water and soil from maintenance and rest areas; fugitive dust suppression and sweeping; provision of oil water separators as required; management of hazardous materials and wastes; storm water runoff and drainage management; minimization of noise impact on communities resident in the vicinity; erosion control; sediment control measures in natural watercourse/river/stream; collection, treatment and disposal of wastes and wastewater from maintenance facilities, rest areas, food parks, parking lots and offices; collection, segregation and sale of recyclable solid waste; hazardous material management; storage and disposal of hazardous waste; use of pesticides and herbicides; management of pest, weed and RoW maintenance; ambient air quality and noise condition norms; emissions norms for DG sets and hot mix plants; and overall housekeeping. The InvIT, through IM, PM and SPVs, will contractually require and ensure that its contractors also adhere to the EHSS practices of the InvIT. The IM, PM and all SPVs will implement an appropriate quarterly monitoring program for ambient air quality and noise, particularly at sensitive receptors, and monthly monitoring and reporting program for waste, safety and other ESAP actions.

 Infrastructure and Equipment Design and Community Safety

While the roads are constructed in conformity to Indian Road Congress (IRC) standards, there are locations on several of the roads where: median/divider was observed to be broken and pedestrians and vehicles were crossing the road, increasing the risk of accident; and road signs were missing. The InvIT will, as part of each SPV's ESMS, implement procedures for: (a) each SPV to comprehensively review and identify all illegal median opening, missing and inadequate road furniture and signage, regular crossover points for communities and unsafe situations; (b) working with concessioning authority and communities, identifying social infrastructure (schools, community centers, community wells, springs, etc.) along the roads and areas of improvement to prevent or reduce severance effects due to the presence of the roads, and implementing remedial measure including, where required, provision of appropriate cross overs, strengthening of safety infrastructure in pedestrian crossing areas, school children movement areas and cattle movement areas, provision of signage, and safety awareness programs with communities and children along the road. At crossing points, conditions of safety signage and related infrastructure will be systematically reviewed and strengthened.

Traffic Safety

The number of traffic accidents at each of the roads to be transferred to the InvIT is more than 30 in a year and going up to a maximum of 430 on the Indore- Khalghat road in 2017. Of these fatal accidents are also more than five in a year in each road including a maximum of 45 fatal accidents recorded in 2017 on the Indore- Khalghat road. The ESDD includes information on accidents at each SPV and has identified some reasons for accidents, including: parking of multi-axle vehicles in the carriageway, including in areas where a hard shoulder and truck layby areas have been provided; wrong-side driving; inadequate signage at potential road conflict points; and cattle movement at some specific time during the day. Road safety audits have been conducted in some SPVs and black spots identified. In case of the Indore- Khalghat road, the ghat section, especially Bakaner ghat, has been identified as a danger zone. Bakaner ghat section records nearly one- fourth of the total fatal accidents on the road. As Per ESDD report, OPIPL has worked out a design change and waiting for NHAI approval which is still pending as of June 2019.

The InvIT will require each SPV to consistently carry out periodic road safety audits, and to work with the concessioning authority to make appropriate structural/road infrastructure, signage, road furniture improvements, enhanced patrolling measures, ensuring safe corridors and crossings for pedestrian movement, appropriate speed limits, speed control devices near crossings, access controls, roadside lay byes, rest areas, real time warning systems and other GIIP to minimize traffic and community safety risks.

Emergency Response Plan

While SOS service and emergency contact numbers are displayed at various locations, as indicated at ESAP # 2, the InvIT will require all SPVs to implement an Emergency Response Plan and an automated information system like Highway Traffic Management System (HTMS).

Security Personnel

Security at all SPVs is contracted out except Nagpur Byepass. At every toll plaza, there is one armed security guard for protection of cash and up to 20 unarmed security personnel. While the security personnel are trained in performance of their security functions, the PM will require each SPV to, as part of their respective ESMS, develop and implement formal security personnel procedures including for ensuring that: past records of security personnel employed are screened; security personnel have clear objectives and permissible actions laid out; security personnel are trained in avoidance of abusive conduct and the use of fire arms; security incidents are recorded, investigated and corrective action implemented; bona fide complaints against security personnel are investigated and appropriate disciplinary actions are implemented; and there is a grievance mechanism for aggrieved members of community or employees or contract labour, in the event of a violation of the code for security.  

  The InvIT will, prior to commencement of any future expansion or construction or forest land diversion in any of the road or any other roads owned by the InvIT, undertake a full ESIA that meets IFC PSs including, where applicable, assessment and mitigation measures that meet PS 6 requirements.

Of the five roads, PS 6 is applicable to Nagpur Byepass only, as 37.45 km of Nagpur Byepass road passes through reserved area classified as Central Deccan Plateau dry deciduous forests ecoregion, overlaps with tiger landscape and, while outside the Pench National Park/ Tiger Reserve (IUCN Management Category II), adjoins the buffer zone of the park/ key biodiversity area. In this section, an existing 100- year old 2- lane road is being 4-laned currently. A total of about 49.2 ha of reserve land, which would be categorized as natural habitat, has been diverted for widening to 4-lanes. The concessioning authority has paid net present value of the forest and Forest Department has committed to undertake compensatory afforestation with 110,000 trees in 98.4 ha of degraded forest land. The InvIT will, as part of the offset/additional measures feasibility assessment, review the proposed mitigation for conformance to PS 6 no net loss requirement for natural habitat, and, if required, will propose additional measures to meet PS 6 provisions of no net loss. Further, as part of the biodiversity monitoring and evaluation plan, the InvIT will detail monitoring measures to demonstrate progress in implementation of mitigation/offset measures and achievement of no net loss provision.

A third party CH screening of the 37.45 km of the road was undertaken as part of the ESDD for this project. The screening determined that Nagpur Byepass meets criteria for CH. The CH screening identified the potential presence of the following highly threatened species: (i) two IUCN critically endangered (CR) species of vultures (Gyps bengalensis and Gyps indicus), and (ii) three IUCN endangered (EN) species, i.e., tiger (Panthera tigris), wild dog (Cuon alpinus) and Indian pangolin (Manis crassicaudata). However, the screening concluded that the project is only likely to impact tiger (Panthera tigris) as it is the only CH value known to regularly occur in the area of influence of the road. The other highly threatened species are likely to be CH triggers but are not found in the area of influence of the road and are consequently not likely to be impacted as:

• The critically endangered vultures i.e. Gyps bengalensis and Gyps indicus, were identified in the Pench core area, which is not affected by the road, and have been extremely rarely sighted or recorded outside this core area.
• The endangered wild dog (Cuon alpinus) has only been identified within the Pench core area and very few sightings of the species is recorded within the buffer region.
• The endangered Indian pangolin (Manis crassicaudata) is an extremely shy animal that is rarely found near highways and prefers dense vegetation. Sightings of individuals of the species outside the tiger reserve has been limited to parts of Madhya Pradesh with very few to almost no sightings in the Nagpur area or the areas through which the road passes.

The CH assessment, disclosed together with this ESRS, concluded that:

• The project is a widening/ upgrading of an existing road that has been present for over a 100-year period. The road already has an existing flow of traffic, which is significant and a deterrent to wildlife movement. There have been no reported fatalities of tigers through collision with vehicles.
• The project has been evaluated by specialists from Wildlife Institute of India (WII) and the National Tiger Conservation Authority of India (NTCA). Tiger presence along the road was determined by sign surveys along the affected road stretches during morning and evening hours to assess animal use of these habitats. To undertake the survey, the team walked parallel to the road stretch at perpendicular distances of 30 (roadside), 250, 500 and 750 m from the road on both sides. Signs recorded included pellets, scats, pug/hoof marks, other animal signs and direct animal sightings. The CH screening reports that, according to the conclusion of the survey, between two to 11 individuals cross the highway in a year.
• Mitigation measures recommended by WII and NTCA focus on key tiger crossing points and provision of underpasses, guide walls and culverts that has been decided based on primary surveys undertaken by qualified ecologists.
• Based on the WII study, a system of underpasses and minor bridges at nine locations totaling 2.2 km has been incorporated into the road design and is currently under construction. This has been finalized after several visits and consultations with tiger experts and government officials.
• The abovementioned project mitigation measures have been planned for tiger dispersal and therefore significantly reduce the possibility of road kills and human-wildlife conflict in the short-term.
• The project is closely monitored by the Nagpur High Court and Nagpur Forest Department to ensure compliance to the agreed mitigation measures.
• Based on the results of the WII and NTCA study and implementation of the mitigation measures proposed by these expert organizations, it is anticipated that continuity of habitat and reduction in human-wildlife conflict will eventually result in a net gain of tigers in the area with the implementation of the following additional measures described in the CH assessment:

-          Strict surveillance of underpasses to ensure that there is no disturbance by cattle grazers, potential poachers of ungulates and other human presence.

-          A long-term system of monitoring tiger and prey usage of underpasses with video camera traps. These should be located at either ends of the underpass and in the middle sections. The objective is to record tiger behavior on entering, within and exiting the underpass. Insights into this behavior will provide further suggestions for ensuring that tigers enter and exit underpasses with greater confidence. It will also provide a quantitative estimate of use of the underpass.

-          Ensuring that access to and exits from the underpasses have good vegetation cover. This will allow tigers to enter and exit underpasses relatively undisturbed from the noise of the highway.

-          Use of chain link fences to prevent crossing at other points in the highway.

In accordance with the provisions of PS 6, the InvIT will, as mentioned at ESAP # 9:

• develop a Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) to describe biodiversity-related management actions, including the measures recommended by the CH assessment and any offsets, and a rationale for how these will deliver net gains for the CH biodiversity value and no net loss for natural habitats. This will include independent confirmation of the scientific basis for proposed mitigation by credible experts, an offset feasibility assessment to assess and close gaps, if any, between current forest compensation and PS 6 provisions, and a biodiversity monitoring and evaluation plan (BMEP); and
• based on the monitoring results, and as part of the commitments under the BAP, implement additional adaptive management and conservation actions in consultation and collaboration with Nagpur Forest Department and NTCA.

While the construction camp for the under-construction portion of Nagpur Byepass is away from the forest section, the InvIT will, as a policy and as part of the ESMS (under ESAP #1), ensure that for all future road construction works as also O&M works, construction camps, where these are required, will be in areas away from areas of natural and critical habitat. A zero-tolerance policy for possession or collection of illegal wildlife and forest products by staff will be established. This will also be applicable to species of concern, including species listed by CITES.

Alien species

The InvIT will, in accordance with national law and PS 6 provision, for all roads, not plant any invasive alien species in road verge plantings and use only indigenous species that are locally found. This will be stipulated under the ESMS (ESAP #1).

Ecosystem Services

The InvIT will, as part of the ESIA for any future road construction or expansion work, undertake an assessment of potential impacts on ecosystem services and implement mitigation measures in accordance with IFC PS provisions.        

Performance Standard 7 is applicable to two roads, namely: (i) Indore- Khalghat; and (ii) Nagpur- Betul. These roads pass through Schedule V areas (the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution of India deals with administration and control of scheduled areas and scheduled tribes (ST) in these areas). The acquisition of land and construction activities were completed between 2006- 2017. There are no impacts on IPs linked to current ongoing construction activities on Nagpur- Betul. As part of the ESDD, the company undertook an assessment of residual impacts on IPs. The summary of assessment for each of these roads is presented below.

Indore- Khalghat: Out of the three districts through which the road passes, two (Dhar and Khargone) are Schedule V areas. Based on review of the land acquisition records, the two main tribal communities in the area are Bhils and Bhilalas. Both communities are categorized as STs. The villages of Dhal, Palasmal, Bakaner, Janavav Kutti, Jhamanjhiri, Dugani have more than 90% tribal population. Apart from these villages in Dhar and Khargone, some villages in the other district of Indore also have significant ST population.

The land acquisition for the project was carried out between 2006-2011 and around 90% construction activities were completed in 2009.  The findings of the ESDD were the following:

• 96% of the land acquired for the road was private land and the remaining 4% comprised of govt forest and common/public pasture land.
• Around 40-50 houses on privately held land by STs were paid compensation for their loss of land and structures prior to the road construction in 2006. These families rebuilt their houses on the remaining portion of their affected land parcels or moved to alternative sites owned by them within the same village.
• The overall loss of the pasturelands in villages with significant ST population was only 1.24% of the total pastureland. Hence, the extent of loss of pastureland in these villages was considered negligible.
• The total forestland diverted for the project constituted 1.5% of the total available forestland in the affected villages. The forestland acquired at village level was in the range of 0.87% and 3.97%. Thus, the extent of the loss of forestland was low for most of the affected villages.
• A relatively denser vegetation cover was only observed in Ghat sections (from Gadaghat to Bakaner) of the road where existing RoW was increased to 15m additional width. The vegetation cover along the road corridor was thinner than the section away from it.
• Community members consulted with at Dhal and Palasmal stated that the forest cover away from the road corridor is denser and that they have no dependence on the patch of forestland closer to the road. Discussions with the Forest Office at Dhamod also indicated that the forest along the road corridor is thinner and does not have trees which are considered useful for non-timber forest produce (NTFP) by ST communities.
• The consultations with communities at Palasmal and Dhal as well as with District Administration did not indicate that non-titleholder ST families were relocated due to the project.

Based on the available information, field observation, and consultation with key stakeholders and members of ST community at Palasmal and Dhal, the following were the key conclusions:

• The forest that was impacted and the pasture land were not under traditional ownership/ customary use;
• Only 1.24% of the total pastureland available in 53 villages has been acquired and Bhils and Bhilalas are not traditional livestock rearing communities;
• The relocation of a few households was within the same community and did not sever their access to any land/resources that was under traditional ownership and customary use; and
• The road has been operational for more than eight years and there have been no known protests by any community including STs.

Nagpur- Betul: Nagpur Betul Highway passes through three districts - Nagpur in Maharashtra; and Betul and Chhindwara in Madhya Pradesh. Nagpur is not a notified scheduled tribe district while Betul and Chhindwara are tribal districts. Within Betul and Chhindwara, the project road passes through three blocks (block is a sub-division of a district): Betul, Multai and Pandhurna. Among these only Betul is a notified tribal block. The main tribes in the area are Korku, Bharia and Mariya.

Majority of the land acquisition was done during the period 2011-15 and all construction, barring 2.4 km long bypass, was completed in July 2015. The key findings of the ESDD were the following:

• The road passes through 65 villages. Of these, 51 villages have ST population with 48 villages having less than 25% ST population.
• The land acquisition in the affected villages of the two ST districts was about 545 ha (75% of the total land). This land acquisition did not involve any land owned by scheduled tribes. 
• Around 98% of the total land comprised of private land and only 2.7% of the land acquired was reported as grazing land.
• The total forestland diverted for the project constituted1.14% of the total available forestland in the three districts. In villages with significant ST population (more than 25%), the total forestland acquired for the project was 0.03 ha which constituted 0.23% of the total forestland available in these villages.
• The consultation with local community in Badchicholi in Madhya Pradesh section and Saoner in Maharashtra section confirmed that the community is not dependent directly or indirectly on the forest land diverted for road purpose.
• The forest land diverted for the project did not involve any community rights on forest land, rights to collect, use of minor forest produces which has been traditionally collected within or outside boundary of the village, or right of cultivation in forest land or grazing land.
• The tribes in the area are primarily dependent on agriculture and cultivation. Livestock is the secondary source of livelihood.
• The consultation with project director of NHAI confirmed that there is no relocation of ST due to the project.

As such, while the road widening involved diversion of forest and pasture land in areas with significant tribal population, the ESDDs concluded that there are no residual impacts on tribal community because of road construction and operation. Any future land acquisition in villages with tribal population will have to be conducted in accordance with PS 7. Where FPIC is applicable, the SPV will confirm FPIC prior (ESAP #10) to land acquisition for future construction activities, including construction of wayside amenities, toll plaza, new alignment, or capacity augmentation.

 All roads do not pass through any major cultural heritage sites or sites of archaeological importance. While no major cultural heritage sites have been affected by the roads, in widening of all projects, religious structures falling within the enhanced RoW were or are being moved to other locations in consultation with communities. The concessioning authority leads consultation on this aspect with the community. Most such structures have already been either fully relocated or partially removed. The number of structures relocated at each road is from nine in Nagpur- Betul to 126 in Etawah- Chakeri. In some cases, religious structures have been allowed to remain within the RoW as they do not affect the operations of the main carriageway. As part of the ESMS for each SPV (ESAP #1), IM and PM will ensure: (a) identification and details of cultural heritage structures that have been relocated to date; (b) documentation of the process followed for relocation; and (c) a PS8-compliant procedure for future relocation of such structures and mitigation of cultural heritage impacts will be developed.   

  As part of the ESDD of all five roads, consultations were carried out with the affected land owners, existing encroachers whose structures are located within the RoW, workers engaged in different activities at SPVs, officials of revenue department, NHAI Project Implementation Unit and forest department (as relevant). Public hearings were conducted in districts passed by the roads as part of the regulatory ESIA process as relevant.

The ESDDs reviewed and assessed the ongoing stakeholder engagement activities and identified the following gaps with respect to PS 1 requirements: (i) lack of formal SEP and community grievance mechanism with defined timeframe for resolution; (ii) consultations are not documented; and (iii) information on project EHSS performance and scheduling of maintenance and construction (where relevant) activities are not shared with the affected communities. While all SPVs maintain a public grievance register to record complaints and issues from the community, and mainly road commuters, formal procedures detailing how any complaint registered will be redressed have not been defined. After transfer of roads to InvIT, all SPVs will develop a formal, structured and coordinated SEP, including a community grievance redress process (ESAP #8). For all roads with residual land acquisition, SEPs will be designed to ensure informed consultation and participation with populations affected by land acquisition for the road and will additionally cover engagement activities around design and implementation of social management plans. Further, at the InvIT level, the IM and PM will put in place, as part of its ESMS, procedures for receiving and responding to external communication, concerns, grievances and information requests from members of the neighbouring community. The requirement for the development and implementation of an asset-specific SEP will be applicable to all assets that the InvIT will acquire in future.        

  Contact Person's name: Vikas Mohan

Company Name: Oriental Structural Engineers Limited

Address: OSE Commercial Block, Asset 5B, Aerocity,

Hospitality District, IGI Airport, New Delhi, Delhi 110037

Email id of the contact person: EHS@orientalindia.com

Phone number of the contact person: 011-46044604