Industrial projects to get security clearance within 12 weeks

Industrial and infrastructure project proposals will get security clearance within 12 weeks as the Home Ministry has streamlined the process by issuing a detailed guideline in this regard.

The decision has been taken as part of the Narendra Modi government's push for attracting FDI for infrastructure projects and setting up of industries, which is expected to create jobs, revive economy and bring overall growth.

"A detailed guidelines has been issued to streamline the process of granting security clearance for proposals relating to infrastructure which will result in expeditious clearance of proposals from security point of view," a Home Ministry official said.

Under the new guidelines, the Home Ministry will decide on security clearances for any project forwarded by any Ministry or Department within a strict time-frame of 12 weeks.

If there is any "adverse" comments by the security agencies for any project, the Home Ministry will share it with the nodal Ministry or Department compulsorily.

However, in case of extraordinary situation, the Ministry will convey to the promoter the reasons for delay and expected time for clearing the nod.

The Home Ministry will also actively pursue with the intelligence agencies, which collect the background information about the promoters, source of funds and funding pattern, so that they provide their inputs on time.

In 2013, a total of 42 FDI proposals in strategic sectors like aviation, telecom, infrastructure were received by the Home Ministry for security clearance and 27 of them had been cleared while in 2012, 36 FDI proposals were received for security clearance and 33 of these were granted clearance.

Industries often complaint of delay in getting security clearance which some time took as long as six months to one year. Power, Surface Transport, Shipping were some of the sectors whose security clearance took months.

The Prime Minister's Office is said to be closely monitoring the exercise to streamline the process of granting security clearance as delay in giving approval to various projects has been considered as a "major bottleneck" for the timely completion of various industrial initiatives.