Gujarat tops Environment Clearance list with 292 projects

Gujarat, which will soon become the first state in the country to have a separate department of climate change, is also the foremost in providing Environment Clearances (EC) to various infrastructure, power and development projects.

This information was provided by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests in the recently concluded Budget Session.

Consider this: During the last three years, 80 projects seeking diversion of 1539.45 hectares of forest land for widening of roads in Gujarat have been given in-principal approvals under the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980. Himachal Pradesh came a distant second with conversion of only 257.52 hectares of forest land.

As regards to ECs for development projects in the country in 2008-09, Gujarat again tops with as many as 292 projects approved by the MoEF, followed by Tamil Nadu with 203 projects.

Ads by Google

Gujarat has also topped the list with respect to environment clearances to power projects in the past three years, both in terms of number of projects and aggregate capacity.

According to a report tabled in Parliament last year, the state has received clearance for 22 projects aggregating 13,645 MW.

To add to it, the state also leads the list in the number of projects submitted after April 30, 2009 to the MoEF, awaiting environment clearance.

The ‘EC Projects Statistics’ of MoEF reveals that in all, 62 projects from Gujarat, the most in the country, are awaiting clearance. Forty two of these are awaiting Terms of References clearance and 22 are awaiting EC/Coastal Regulation Zone clearance.