Question : Environmental Clearance of Projects

(a) whether a number of projects including construction of roads, mining, hydro-electric projects, power and irrigation from various State Governments are awaiting environmental and forest clearance at present, if so, the details thereof, State/UT-wise and Project-wise including Sita Rama Irrigation Project of Telangana;
(b) the reasons for pendency of projects indicating the time for which such projects are lying pending, project-wise and State/UT-wise including Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Telangana;
(c) the details of projects/companies granted clearance during the last three years and the current year, State/UT-wise;
(d) whether the Government follows any fast track mechanism for according environmental clearance to projects to facilitate the rapid industrial development and if so, the details thereof;
(e) the projects that have been cancelled for want of environmental clearance, State/UT-wise including Bundelkhand region; and
(f) the steps taken to simplify the procedure and expedite the clearance of pending proposals?

MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE
(SHRI BABUL SUPRIYO)

(a) & (b) As per the available information on PARIVESH, 27 projects from State Government and its entities, located in different states of the country, are at various stages of appraisal under Environment Impact Assessment Notification, 2006 in the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. Environmental Clearanceto Sita Rama Lift Irrigation project (Phase-1) has been accorded by the Ministry on 7th January, 2019.

All the proposals for approval of use of forest land (including construction of roads, mining, hydro-electric projects, power and irrigation) are processed as per the provision of the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980, Rules, and Guidelines framed thereunder. At present, as per available records, there are 97 proposals at various stages of approval under Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980. The project proposal in name of Sita Rama Lift irrigation Project of Telangana has been accorded approval under the provision of Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 on 31.01.2019. State wise details of projects under consideration for environmental clearance, Stage I (In-Principle) l forest clearance approval and Stage II/ Final approval are at Annexure 1 and 2.

(c) As per the available information on PARIVESH, this Ministry has granted environmental clearance and forest clearance to 1757 Category A projects and 3830 projects, respectively. State-wise details are at Annexure 3 and 4.

(d) to (f) Ministry has launched a single window hub PARIVESH on 10th August, 2018 for online submission, monitoring and management of environmental clearances, which is a Single-Window Integrated Environmental Management System, developed in pursuance of the spirit of ''Digital India'' and capturing the essence of "minimum government and maximum governance". A work-flow based application has been rolled out for online submission, monitoring and management of proposals submitted by Project Proponents to the (MoEF&CC), as well as to the State Level Environmental Impact Assessment Authorities (SEIAA) to seek various types of clearances (e.g. Environment, Forest, Wildlife and Coastal Regulation Zone Clearances) from Central, State and district-level authorities. It automates the entire process of submitting the application and tracking the status of such proposals at each stage of the processing, thus reducing the time lines and increasing transparency and accountability.

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