• ●Issuing body: National Highways Authority of India, an autonomous body under the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways, constituted by the National Highways Authority of India Act, 1988 and operational from February 1995; headquarters at Dwarka, New Delhi.
• ●New threshold: plantation on at least 80% of the earmarked Right of Way, plus a 90% sapling survival rate, before PCC/PCOD is issued.
• ●Any shortfall beyond the 80% threshold must be reported with completion timelines, and financial withholdings under the contract or concession agreement apply until the target is met.
• ●Plant casualties must be replaced with plants of similar age and growth; an environment and plantation expert engaged by NHAI verifies field compliance before O&M or annuity payments are released.
• ●Standards cited in the guidelines: the Green Highways Policy, 2015 and IRC:SP:21-2009.
• ●The Green Highways (Plantation, Transplantation, Beautification and Maintenance) Policy, 2015 created a Green Highways Fund financed by setting aside 1% of the civil construction cost of a highway project, with NHAI as fund manager.
• ●Miyawaki plantation, used by NHAI to raise dense native forest patches on land beside highways, is a Japanese method developed by botanist Akira Miyawaki.
• ●Bharatmala Pariyojana Phase-I, approved in 2017, covers 34,800 km of highways at an outlay of about ₹5.35 lakh crore — the umbrella programme under which much of this plantation obligation arises.

Under NHAI's new guidelines, a Provisional Certificate of Completion for a national highway project requires plantation on what minimum share of the earmarked Right of Way, and what minimum sapling survival rate?