The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (“Ministry”) by a Gazette Notification dated 18th March, 2021 has amended the Environment Impact Assessment Notification, 2006 (“EIA Notification”).
A new sub-clause has been inserted in Paragraph 7 (“Stages in the Prior Environmental Clearance (EC) Process for New Projects”) under sub-heading II – Stage (2) – Scoping. The sub-clause that is being inserted is as follows –
(x) Notwithstanding anything contained above, the projects where construction and commissioning of proposed activities have not been completed within the validity period of the Environmental Clearance (EC) and a fresh application for EC has been submitted due to expiry of the said period of the EC, the concerned Expert Appraisal Committee or State Level Expert Committee, as the case may be, may exempt the requirement of public hearing subject to the condition that the project has been implemented not less than fifty percentage in its physical form or construction.
Implication – as per the amendment, the projects where construction and commissioning of proposed activities have not been completed within the validity period of the Environmental Clearance (EC) and a fresh application for EC has been submitted due to expiry of the period of EC, the requirement of public hearing may be exempted by the concerned Expert Appraisal Committee or State Level Expert Committee on the condition that the project has been implemented not less than 50% in its physical form or construction.
Source : Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change
