Twenty-seven railway, dam projects awaiting forest clearance in last 3 years: Govt

New Delhi: The government on Thursday said only 29 proposals seeking forest clearances for expansion of railways and construction of dams are pending out of total 137 project proposals received in the last three years.

Of 137 proposals received in the years 2012, 2013 and 2014, the Environment Ministry has cleared 99 proposals, while nine of them have been withdrawn, it added.

"...And 29 proposals are at various stages of processing with state governments, pertaining to railways and construction of dams," Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.

Asked by when it would give clearances to the pending proposals, Javadekar said, "Quite often, the proposals received are not complete in all respects and the central government has to seek further details/documents from the concerned state governments resulting into pendency of the proposals."

He said, "The Ministry intimates the shortcomings in the proposal immediately to the state government and as soon as the proposal complete in all respect is received, the Ministry promptly takes decision on the proposal."

The proposals complete in all respects are examined by the Forest Advisory Committee (FAC), which does so on the merits and accordingly recommends to consider or reject the proposal, he said.

The proposals seeking prior approval of the central government for diversion of forest land are dealt in accordance with the provisions of the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 and guidelines issues thereunder, he added.

PTI