NH central line norms: Keralam seeks relaxation of SC order

Keralam will seek an exemption for existing commercial and residential buildings from the Supreme Court order banning construction of residential buildings within 40 meters and commercial buildings within 75 meters of the center line of national highways.

The state will seek a review of the apex court’s order that imposed the central reserve, pointing out that the order will make the “residual holdings wholly unalienable without lawful acquisition or compensation”.

Keralam will argue that the court’s directive that no agency shall grant or renew any licence, NOC or business approval for any site in road safety zones without prior permission of NHAI/PWD and all such existing licenses for such sites be reviewed within 30 days, “threatens to paralyze routine maintenance, necessary repairs, reconstruction and reconstruction of long standing statutory structures”.

The Supreme Court’s order in August, which ordered the restrictions, caused widespread distress and confusion in the state.

Applying a blanket imposition of the injunction’s guidelines will cause thousands of legitimate, long-standing local businesses, neighborhood businesses to face immediate gridlock, closure or administrative paralysis. Processing and approval of all the existing sites will create serious administrative hurdles for both NHAI and state authorities, they argue.

The state will argue that the prior permission of NHAI/PWD must be limited to only commercial properties seeking new or direct, unregulated vehicular access to the main highway. Established commercial operations located behind separated service roads or within city street networks are exempt from this regulation, the state claims.

While the state points out that Keralam is geographically limited as a narrow, elongated strip bounded by the Western Ghats and the Arabian Sea, resulting in a severe shortage of buildable land and a high concentration of human settlements, it points out that 11 national highways with a total length of approximately 1,643.807 km pass through it.

The implications of the single axis restriction are most critical along NH-66, which runs approximately 664 km across the state and passes through five municipal corporations, 25 municipalities, 59 census towns and 66 grama panchayats.

Acute demographic pressure, severe shortage of habitable land and linear settlement topography of Kerala make rigid application of open country standards quite unviable, it will be pointed out.

NH-66 passes through established urban local bodies and census towns and approximately 60% of the land directly adjacent to the corridor is already built-up area. The highway does not pass through empty, open countryside, but passes through established settlements that have developed over many decades, this will be emphasized.

The imposition of a 75-metre commercial control line over the officially acquired 45-metre right-of-way on NH-66 will lead to an uncompensated, unlimited freeze of 52.5 meters of private land on each side of the road, besides sterilizing around 16,615 acres of prime land along NH-66, the state will argue before the court itself.

Published – 11 Sep 2026 21:12 IST