Prevention of encroachment

(1) No person shall make any encroachment on the State Highway. (2) If any person makes an encroachment, the Highway Authority shall issue a notice to remove such encroachment within the specified period. (3) If the person fails to comply with the notice, the Highway Authority shall remove the encroachment and recover the cost from the person. (1) The Highway Authority of its own accord or if expressly requested by the Competent Authority shall, subject to the other provisions of this Act and subject to such rules as may be framed by the State Government for this purpose, prepare and submit to the Competent Authority for sanction, a detailed scheme for the construction of a new highway or the improvement of, or repairs to an existing one.\n(2) Such a scheme may provide for:-\n(a) the acquisition of any land, which in the opinion of the Highway Authority is considered necessary for its execution;\n(b) the demarcation and for preparation of layouts of all or any of the lands so acquired for different purposes;\n(c) the diversion or closure of any existing highway or a section of such highway;\n(d) the construction or reconstruction of the roadway including its widening, levelling, surfacing, bridging, sewering, draining, watersupply and street lighting arrangements and planting of road side trees;\n(e) the laying out of footpaths, cycle tracks and special traffic lanes for any kind or class of vehicles, the designing and setting of parking bays and petrol filling and service stations and other road side amenities, the location of advertisement posts and bill boards; and\n(f) the layout of access roads at suitable distance connecting the highway or the proposed highway with the adjoining properties.\n(g) Provision for plantation should be made on both sides of the road, -\n(i) Responsibilities for the maintenance of plants/trees may be given to the Department /local authorities or Public Committee as the case may be.\n(ii) No one should cut/uproot any plant or tree lying within road boundary.\n(iii) Whoever contravenes any provision of this clause shall be punished with fine, which may extend to Rs. 5,000/- per tree, but not less than Rs. 1,000/- per tree by the Competent Authority which may be declared by State Government. The vehicle carrying the corpus of such tree shall be seized and may be confiscated.\n(iv) In case the plantation and maintenance of the plants/trees is done by the local persons/societies, such local persons/societies shall have usufruct right over them.