The company's order for forest clearance to transport around 1.6 lakh tonnes of bauxite mined from Kolhapur district

The National Green Tribunal has dismissed Hindalco's plea challenging the Maharashtra government's refusal to grant it three more months, after expiry of its forest clearance, to transport around 1.6 lakh tonnes of bauxite mined from Kolhapur district. A bench headed by Justice V R Kingaonkar also declined to direct the state government to forward the company's proposal, for more time, to the Centre for grant of approval.

PANJIM: The Union Ministry of Mines dropped a bombshell Friday, by shooting a copy of the letter addressed to Orissa government to all State governments which says that basic Central government permissions were needed before renewal of mining leases and permissions from the Indian Bureau of Mines and assessment of amount of mineral left in the lease, feasibility and other such criteria need to be adhered to.

The two-page directions received by State Directorate of Mines come on the heels of the communiqué from the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests stating that leases cannot be renewed in case any part of the mining lease comes within forest areas and for which forest clearance has to be obtained.

BHUBANESWAR: Under the microscope for allegedly engaging in illegalities, several mine owners on Wednesday raised objections before the Justice M B Shah Commission to the manner in which boundaries of mines were determined using satellite images.

Various miners, represented by prominent lawyers, strongly pleaded before the inquiry commission for a fresh physical verification of the boundaries of different mines.

The 555-km Kishangarh-Udaipur-Ahmedabad project from which the developer GMR Infrastructure pulled out in early January citing huge delays in clearances, has now got all requisite approvals from the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF). According to sources, with Gujarat, one of the two states through which the highway passes, also giving forest clearance, the MoEF has given the green signal for the project.

The Rajasthan portion of the six-laning project was cleared earlier and in a meeting today, the Gujarat portion was also approved, paving the way for the project to be cleared from the angles of both environment and forest regulations, a ministry official said.

New Delhi: The Cabinet Committee on Investment (CCI) on Wednesday cleared six coal mining projects of the 40 that were on the table for discussion. Projects that were not cleared have been slotted for urgent review and the CCI will consider them once the process is complete.

The key issue before the CCI was pending environment and forest clearances for the coal projects mainly in Jharkhand, Odisha and Madhya Pradesh, with proposals stacked in three categories relating to the clearances needed.

Niyamgiri Suraksha Samiti (NSS), an outfit of tribals agitating against the alumina refinery of Vedanta Aluminium (VAL) at Lanjigarh in Kalahandi district, on Tuesday sought Congress vice-president

In a bid to curb manipulations and expedite cases, the state forest department is gearing up to accept proposals online for forest land diversion under the Forest Conservation Act (FCA) 1980.

Hyderabad: The nearly Rs 4,000-crore phase-I of the Godavari drinking water project for Greater Hyderabad is about to overcome a major environmental hurdle with the state government giving a green signal to the Water Board to take over 28 acres of forest land in Ranga Reddy district for construction of a master balancing reservoir.

The state forest department has agreed to give away 28 acres of forest land after the Water Board provided it with an equal extent of land in Murmur mandal in Karimnagar.

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 Union coal ministry has floated a Cabinet note seeking approval of the Cabinet Committee on Investment ( CCI) to free investments worth Rs 1,347 crore stuck in coal mines stuck due to lack of environment clearances.

The coal ministry and the Ministry of Environment and Forests ( MoEF) have jointly identified 12 projects ,which were stuck for want of green clearances and where approvals can be given quickly.