The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has announced the winners of the Green Highways Excellence Awards 2026, recognising exemplary plantation and landscaping practices along National Highways across the country.
Instituted to encourage healthy plantation practices and sustainable highway landscaping, the awards cover three categories: Avenue Plantations, Median Plantations, and Plantation in Land Parcels, including clover leaves, interchanges, toll plazas and service areas.
Winners Across Three Categories
Category I: Avenue Plantations
The Six-Laning of Chilakaluripet Bypass on NH-16 in Andhra Pradesh, under NHAI’s RO Vijayawada, secured the first prize.
The Padra–Vadodara section of the Vadodara–Kim Expressway in Gujarat received the second prize, while the Gagariya–Bakhasar section of NH-925 and Satta–Gandhav section of NH-925A in Rajasthan secured third place.
A consolation prize was awarded to the Annual Maintenance and Incident Management project for the Trichy–Karaikudi section, including the Trichy Bypass, under RO Madurai.
Category II: Median Plantations
The Four-Laning of the Hyderabad–Yadgiri section of NH-163, under RO Hyderabad, won the first prize.
The Sanpa–Padra section of the Vadodara–Kim Expressway in Gujarat secured second place, while the Varanasi Ring Road Package-I, Harahua–Sandaha section of NH-31, under RO UP East (Varanasi), received the third prize.
Category III: Plantation in Land Parcels
The Jamtha Clover Leaf Oxygen Bird Park on NH-44, under RO Nagpur, was awarded the first prize.
The land parcel at Duhai Interchange under ToT Bundle-7, NE-II, under RO Delhi, secured second place. The Miyawaki Plantation in loop areas at the Lucknow–Ayodhya Road and Lucknow Outer Ring Road intersection, under RO UP West (Lucknow), received the third prize.
86 Projects Received Nominations
According to the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways, NHAI received 86 nominations from across the country. These included 27 nominations for Avenue Plantations, 36 for Median Plantations and 23 for Plantation in Land Parcels.
The entries were supported by geo-tagged photographs, drone videos, site-specific plantation plans and plantation survival-rate data. Following initial screening, 15 nominations—five from each category—were shortlisted for final assessment.
The evaluation framework gave the highest weightage to plantation survival rates. Other parameters included plantation action plans, timing of plantation activities, pit size, quality of planting material, protection measures, implementation according to approved designs, species diversity, and the suitability and use of native species.
NHAI also placed emphasis on the quality, sustainability, effectiveness and potential for wider replication of the plantation practices across the National Highway network.
The Green Highways Excellence Awards were instituted by NHAI in 2025, in line with the Green Highways Policy, 2015, reinforcing the authority’s focus on integrating environmental sustainability with the expansion and development of India’s National Highway network.
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