Envrironment and Forests Minister Prakash Javadekar said 298 projects were pending for environment clearance and 80 for forest clearance as of June 30 and his ministry was working to expedite the process of granting approvals.
Among the proposals pending for environment clearance, a maximum of 55 were from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state Gujarat followed by 35 from Andhra Pradesh and 24 each from Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh.
The measures taken by his ministry to speed up environment clearance included regular and longer duration meetings of expert appraisal committees for consideration of projects in different sectors and regular monitoring of status of pending projects among other things, he said.