Cab Sec panel promises green e-clearances

Delay in green clearances are estimated to have held back over 100 projects worth investment of over Rs 4 lakh crore.

Getting environmental and forest clearances for large infrastructure projects could just be a click away, with the government announcing launch of a portal from July 1, 2014, for such clearances. Delay in green clearances has been one of the major concerns for industry in recent years.

“One will have to upload all required documents on the website and will be taken up for approval by department concerned. The applicant company can also check the status of their application and get clearances within the stipulated time period,” said Anil Swarup, chairman of the Project Monitoring Group (PMG) set up under the cabinet secretariat.

Swarup, while speaking at the Annual General Meeting of the Confederation of Indian Industry, said that the PMG is talking to the department of mines to bring it allocation process on to the portal as well. This scheme of online clearances of projects is similar to the ones followed by the governments of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Maharashtra and the Punjab Pollution Control Board.

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Delay in green clearances are estimated to have held back over 100 projects worth investment of over Rs 4 lakh crore. Around 24 large road projects were also held during the first half of last year and the National Highways Authority of India had moved the Supreme Court against the environment ministry for delaying clearances.

After Veerappa Moily took charge of the environment ministry, the Cabinet Committee on Investment (CCI) along with the PMG under the cabinet secretariat has facilitated clearance of projects worth Rs 1.59 lakh crore.

Some of the major projects that got green nods include Posco’s steel plant in Orissa and NHPC’s Tawang -II hydroelectric project and Gujarat Pipavav Port for capacity expansion, among others. Projects which are waiting for EC include JK Lakshmi Cement’s proposed grinding unit in Orissa.