NHAI Announces Winners of the 'Green Highways Excellence Awards 2026'

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has announced the winners of the 'Green Highways Excellence Awards 2026', recognising outstanding plantation and landscaping efforts undertaken along National Highways across the country. Instituted to promote healthy greening practices, the awards celebrate projects that combine environmental responsibility with highway infrastructure development.

Green Highways Excellence Awards 2026: Categories

The awards were given out across three categories:

1. Avenue Plantations
2. Median Plantations
3. Plantation in Land Parcels, including clover leaves, interchanges, toll plazas and service areas.

Entries were open to NHAI field offices, concessionaires, contractors, government agencies, NGOs and private organisations involved in highway plantation projects.

Winners of the Green Highways Excellence Awards 2026

Category I: Avenue Plantations

• 1st Prize - Six Laning of Chilakaluripet Bypass on NH-16, Andhra Pradesh (RO-Vijayawada)
• 2nd Prize - Eight Lane Vadodara-Kim Expressway, Padra to Vadodara Section (RO-Gandhinagar)
• 3rd Prize - Gagariya-Bakhasar section of NH-925 and Satta-Gandhav section of NH-925A (RO-Jaipur)
• Consolation Prize - Annual Maintenance of Trichy-Karaikudi section of NH-210, NH-336, 36 & 536, including Trichy Bypass (RO-Madurai)

Category II: Median Plantations

1. 1st Prize - Four Laning of Hyderabad-Yadgiri section, NH-163 (RO-Hyderabad)
2. 2nd Prize - Eight Lane Vadodara-Kim Expressway, Sanpa to Padra Section (RO-Gandhinagar)
3. 3rd Prize - Varanasi Ring Road, Pkg-I, Harahua to Sandaha section of NH-31 (RO-UP East, Varanasi)

Category III: Plantation in Land Parcels

• 1st Prize - Jamtha Clover Leaf, Oxygen Bird Park on NH-44 (RO-Nagpur)
• 2nd Prize - ToT Bundle-7, NE-II land parcels at Duhai Interchange (RO-Delhi)
• 3rd Prize - Lucknow-Ayodhya Road & Outer Ring Road Junction – Miyawaki Plantation in Loop Areas (RO-UP West, Lucknow)

Nominations for the NHAI Green Highways Excellence Award 2026

NHAI received a strong response with 86 total nominations submitted through its online portal — 27 for Avenue Plantations, 36 for Median Plantations, and 23 for Plantation in Land Parcels. Entries came supported by geo-tagged photographs, drone videos, plantation plans and survival-rate data.

Selection Process for the Green Highways Excellence Award 2026

After an initial screening, 15 nominations — five from each category — were shortlisted for final evaluation. Judging was based on a detailed framework, with plantation survival rate carrying the highest weight, alongside factors like site-specific planning, pit size, planting material quality, protection measures, and use of native species suited to local conditions.

NHAI Green Highways Excellence Awards 2026: Aim

Instituted in 2025 under the Green Highways Policy of 2015, these awards reflect NHAI's ongoing commitment to weaving environmental sustainability into India's highway development, encouraging replication of successful green practices across the national highway network.