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The Bombay High Court has rejected a plea by City and Industrial Development Corporation (Cidco), the nodal agency for the proposed Navi Mumbai International Airport, to exempt the airport project

Tribal minister says he hasn’t seen the report on this, though his own secretary is a signatory

A panel set up by the Prime Minister’s Office to review the mechanism for forest clearances in industrial projects has suggested replacing the need for approval from the relevant gram sabha with state government “certificates’’. Tribal Affairs Minister Kishore Chandra Deo says he has yet to see the report, which in effect asks for disregarding the Forest Rights Act (FRA), which he has been championing.

New Delhi: The joint stand that environment ministry and the tribal affairs ministry take in the critical Vedanta bauxite mining case in the Supreme Court on Monday is set to decide the fate of hun

The National Highways Authority of India has asked the environment ministry to clear 25 road projects that are stuck for want of approvals.

Delhi-Ludhiana expressway talks begin, states express in-principle approval

With the Prime Minister’s Office stepping in to resolve the row between the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) over forest clearances to highway projects, the former has communicated the ball is now in the latter’s court. Senior officials in the NHAI and the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways said the highway authority maintained its stand and had communicated this to the MoEF and the PMO.

Stepping in to resolve the row between the National Highways Authority of India and the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) over forest clearance to linear projects, the Prime Minister’s Office Tuesday worked out a formula to end the embarrassing stand-off between two arms of the central government.

A meeting called by the PMO decided the MoEF will submit a clarification delinking environmental clearance from forest clearance for linear projects following which NHAI will withdraw its court case against the ministry, highly placed sources said.

Tata Steel has been asked by the Ministry of Environment and Forests panel to get forest clearances prior to seeking environment nod for its coal mining project in Jharkhand.

JSW Energy has received forest clearance for its planned 240 MW hydropower project in Himachal Pradesh, making way for the company to start construction of the project. The project, being set up at an estimated cost of about . 2,000 crore, was awarded to the company in 2007 but has not taken off due to lack of clearances. This would be the maiden hydropower venture of the Sajjan Jindal-led company which has an operational capacity of 2,600 MW and aims to scale up capacity to 11,770 MW.

Things may have come to a boil between the National Highways Authority of India and the Ministry of Environment and Forests over green clearances to road projects last week with the former going to court in protest, but they have been simmering for long enough. The NHAI has for long been demanding exemption from the Forest Rights Act for its road projects and now derives strength from the recent recommendations made by a Committee of Secretaries on the issue.

Chaired by the Law Secretary, this committee — specifically examining the NHAI’s demand vis-a-vis the ministry’s contentions — gave an opinion in favour of the NHAI. The committee has opined that the FRA may not be insisted upon as far as road projects are concerned.

Long-term lenders like IIFCL and IDBI Bank are unlikely to fund road projects where land acquisition is incomplete, a move that could scuttle plans to award projects of 8,000 km this fiscal year. Lenders and builders have approached the finance ministry, road ministry and NHAI, insisting that road contracts should not be awarded without all clearances in place.

“We are not taking up new projects unless 100% land acquisition is done. We are taking up the issue with NHAI,” IIFCL chairman SK Goel told FE. “We feel other lenders will follow suit,” he added.

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