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The central government is working to substantially cut red tape at the environment ministry by doing away with multiple applications for all the green clearances that a project developer requires. A single comprehensive application would soon replace the existing multiple-window system.
The environment ministry also plans to cut the two-stage mandatory environmental clearances under the Environment Protection Act to a single stage, shaving six months from the process.
The move, which can be carried out by affecting changes in the regulations and rules underlying the environment laws, without legislative amendments, could come through by the end of the year, multiple sources in the government told Business Standard.
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At the moment, project developers require a mandatory environment clearance and, depending upon the location of their projects, they also need additional green clearances such as coastal regulation zone clearance, forest clearance and wildlife clearance. The coastal regulatory zone clearance, as the name suggests, is for activities along the coast. This is also given under the Environment Protection Act. There are separate expert appraisal committees to appraise these two clearances.
The forest clearance is mandatory for any project that even partially falls on forestland or impacts reasonably dense forests outside areas classified as forestland in government records. This clearance is appraised by the statutory Forest Advisory Committee and then finally cleared by the environment minister. If the project falls within designated protected areas for wildlife or around them, then the companies or agencies have to seek a clearance from the standing committee of the National Wildlife Board as well.
For each of these processes, at the moment, the project developer has to apply separately. "We are working to ensure that project developers submit only one single comprehensive application that can then be dealt with by each of the requisite appraisal committees," said a senior environment ministry official.
In the parallel move that could further reduce the time taken for green clearances, the ministry is developing standard terms of references for each sector of industry to use as templates to carry out studies prior to approaching the government for the mandatory environment clearance. At the moment, most project developers have to approach the expert committees of the ministry to first set these terms of reference on a merit. Once these terms are set, they conduct the studies and, if mandated, public hearings and then come back to the expert committee for a final approval.
"The industry will be able to use these standard terms of reference. Based on site-specific location, right at the beginning the ministry could mandate additional studies," said an environment ministry official. The requirement of additional studies would be made clear right at the beginning when a project developer informs of his intent to go in for an appraisal and would be done within a fixed time limit. "This will reduce the discretion and time taken (in giving clearances). Why should the need for these additional studies crop up in the middle of an appraisal process?" the official said.
The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has been asked by the ministry to provide the basis for the single application form and other inputs to make these changes to the existing provisions.
Government officials said they were not looking at merging the clearance processes entirely. The process would require almost a complete overhaul of the various green laws.
The nature and content of the single comprehensive application as well as the detailed contours of the single-stage environment clearance remain unclear as yet. The CII has submitted its inputs to the government, sources said, though some others in the government disputed this, saying the CII had been slow in providing contribution, delaying the process. Business Standard was unable to verify these comments independently.
