Faced with acute shortage of power and fuel and various issues impeding development of the power sector, the government on Tuesday hinted that it would soon come out with new bidding norms for new power projects after holding talks with the stakeholders.

Addressing a press conference here, Minister of State for Power Jyotirditya Scinda said he would hold talks with stakeholders during the next two weeks and finalise the Standard Bidding Documents (SBDs) that had been in the works for a long time now. He also indicated that a plan was underway to strengthen the electricity grid system and move was afoot to grant the status of regulator to Power Operations Systems Company (Posoco), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Power Grid Corporation of India Limited (PGCIL).

It will be sent to the Union Cabinet for approval soon

Property developers will no longer be able to lure buyers with advertisements making tall claims and with blown-up pictures of fancy living spaces. In fact they will no longer be able to publicise their projects unless they have all the requisite permissions for construction, the Real Estate (Regulation & Development) Bill-2011 has proposed. The Bill, which will be sent to the Union Cabinet for approval soon by the Union Ministry of Housing & Poverty Alleviation, has spelt out the specifics that will have to be followed by the construction industry.

Global miner Xstrata Plc's $5.9 billion Tampakan mine in the Philippines has been granted an environmental compliance certificate by the government, the company said on Tuesday, removing one of the

In the wake of the CBI raid implicating an officer of the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) in arranging green clearances for certain mining projects in Orissa, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, the ministry has for now put on hold all projects associated with the implicated consultant.

Sources said a limestone mining project of Chariot Steel & Power located at village Raiboga in Sundergarh district has already been put on hold. The CBI had on January 16 recovered Rs 1.04 crore from a MoEF deputy director. He was arrested for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 7 lakh to arrange environmental clearance for an Orissa-based power and steel company.

Construction work has come to a standstill in the Greater Noida region after a court order made it mandatory to get environmental clearance (EC) even on plots that are less than 20,000 square metre

Stringent environmental clearance rules for mining of minor minerals are set to be relaxed for mining projects involving 'brick earth' and 'ordinary earth'.

With brick kilns sprawling all over the places in Chittagong, sometimes in utter disregard to the law, there is a growing concern over its negative impact not only on the environment but also on th

Action council to intensify agitation

Union Minister for Forests and Environment (MoEF) Jayanthi Natarajan has clarified that the Ministry has not given environmental clearance for the proposed airport project at Aranmula, said Kummanam Rajashekharan, chief patron of the Thiruvaranmula Paithruka Grama Karma Samiti (TPGKS). Addressing a press conference here on Friday, the samiti leader said the Union Minister had sent a letter (D.O No-51/2010-IA.III, dated January 31, 2013) to Sushma Swaraj, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha,, categorically clarifying that “environmental clearance for the project has not been granted so far.”

New NHAI guidelines delay work on road projects

New National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) guidelines making forest clearance and acquisition of minimum quantum of land mandatory before inviting bids is delaying road projects to be executed in the public-private partnership mode. As per the guidelines, a project will be cleared for tendering only after the authorities concerned complete the process of acquisition under Section 3(A) of the National Highways Act and acquire at least 60 per cent of the land under Section 3(D) of the Act.

The Gujarat High Court on Thursday stayed commercial operations and development activities of 12 companies located in the Adani Group owned Adani Port Special Economic Zone (APSEZ) in Mundra taluka of Kutch district, till environmental clearance is granted to them by Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF).

The directions were issued on a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by villagers of Navinal village in Mundra alleging that these companies in question have not only developed production units but also were importing and exporting goods, despite no environmental clearance by the MoEF.