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An Expert Committee has been constituted for environment impact assessment (EIA) of new construction projects and new industrial estates as required under the EIA Notification dated 7th July 2004.
The Committee, headed by Shri Paritosh C. Tyagi, former Chairman of Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), will scrutinize the environmental impacts of new Construction Projects and new Industrial Estates and will examine the Environmental Management Plan prepared and submitted by the Project authorities. It will suggest safeguards, where feasible, to mitigate the adverse environmental impact and also pollution prevention devices, and will recommend clearance or rejection of the projects from environmental angle with or without safeguards.
The proposal for Environmental Clearance on which the advice of the Committee is sought will be placed before the Committee after preliminary scrutiny in the Ministry. In case the Committee is of the opinion that additional information is required for considering the proposal, the same shall be conveyed to the project authorities at the first meeting and, based on the additional information supplied by project authorities, a final decision shall be taken at the next meeting. More than two sittings to consider the same case shall be only in very exceptional cases. In case, the Committee is of the opinion that it is necessary to obtain comments of other agencies, experts and committees, they may record their observations and suggestions as a proviso while recommending the proposal for clearance or rejection but will not wait for such comments before sending the Committee’s recommendations.
Site visit shall be undertaken, with prior approval of the Ministry, to look into specific points and aspects to be recorded in the minutes of the committee and the site visit team shall comprise of not more than two members who are subject matter specialists with expertise in the identified areas of enquiry.
New townships, industrial townships, settlement colonies, commercial complexes, hotel complexes, hospitals, industrial estates and office complexes for 1,000 persons or more or discharging sewage of 50,000 litres per day or more with an investment upto Rs.50 crore or more are required to obtain environmental clearance from the Central. A notification to this effect, amending the EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) Notification, 1994, was issued by the Ministry of Environment and Forests on 7th July 2004.
The Notification stipulates that new construction projects which were undertaken without obtaining the clearance required under this Notification and where construction work has not commenced upto plinth level and new industrial estates where construction work has not commenced or the expenditure does not exceed 25 per cent of the total sanctioned cost shall be required to obtain clearance under the EIA Notification,1994.
The projects relating to construction of townships, industrial townships, settlement colonies, commercial complexes, hotel complexes, hospitals, industrial estates and office complexes adversely impact environment including wetlands, rivers, streams, lakes, coastal waters and other water bodies posing serious health hazards.
AKS/rs
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