Even as the delay in getting environmental clearances for highway projects hogs the limelight, data shows that as many as 307 road projects are waiting for a green nod from the union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF).
“Due to the involvement of a number of agencies and procedural requirements, a total of 307 cases including cases with the Border Roads Organization (BRO) are pending for environmental and forest clearances till October 2012. These cases are mainly for widening existing carriageways in order to augment capacity,” union Road Transport Ministry (RTM) officials said.
They also claimed that environment and forest clearances take anywhere between 300 days and three years.
"After the Supreme Court’s (SC) 2011 judgement on Lafarge, the environment ministry has issued new directive linking environment clearance and forest clearance. This circular from the ministry is causing a problem," union Road Transport Minister C P Joshi told Business Standard.
The delay in projects were mainly due to linking the environment clearance with forest clearance and condition of obtaining no objection certificate (NOC) from Gram Sabha of the concerned village under the Forest Rights Act (FRA). Prior, to this environment clearance was de-linked from forest clearance which means work in non-forest areas could start and work in forest area was taken up only after the forest clearance.
According to a National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) official, there are 22 pending highway projects (out of the 307 road projects) awaiting clearances from the ministry.
“After April 2011, most highway projects are stuck due to (the absence of) green clearances," added Joshi.
The issue of environmental clearances delaying road projects took centrestage when GMR recently pulled out from the Ahmedabad-Kishangarh highway project, citing delay in getting green clearance as one of the reasons. Following this, the NHAI approached the SC for modification or clarification of the Lafarge judgement that linked environment and forest clearances.
MoEF officials however say that the projects are delayed due to incomplete documents and paperwork. “We have not received complete documents from the NHAI related to the pending projects. How can the ministry grant clearances based on incomplete information?” asked an MoEF official.
With at least two high-profile contractors—GMR Group and GVK Group—walking out of projects, there are fears of further exits. But, Joshi is cautious in his reply. “I won't be able to comment on this, but a fast resolution of the issue will definitely help the sector,” the minister said.
