The Madras High Court on Monday quashed the land acquisition process undertaken by the Centre and the Tamil Nadu government for the greenfield Chennai-Salem expressway, reported The Hindu. The proposed project covers a stretch of 277 km passing through agricultural and reserve forest lands.

The division bench of Justices TS Sivagnanam and V Bhavani Subbaroyan was hearing a batch of petitions filed by advocates, farmers and politicians. The hearing took place for about six months from June to December 2018.

The bench said the project will have an adverse effect on the environment and water bodies. The court ruled that public hearing and prior environmental clearance from the Union government was mandatory, reported The Times of India.

The Rs 10,000-crore expressway project has faced massive opposition, especially from farmers, as thousands of hectares of agricultural land and several hectares of forest land – cutting across five districts and eight reserved forests – had to be acquired.

However, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami had claimed that only a minuscule percentage of farmers had opposed the acquisition of land for the proposed 277-km Chennai-Salem eight-lane expressway.