Indian Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) has issued a directive stating that all the successful bidders in upcoming mines auction have to apply for fresh environmental clearances (EC). This is based on honorable Supreme court’s judgement issued on 7th Feb 2018 in the matter of Sesa Sterlite vs Goa Foundation (Judgement copy attached).
For Judgement copy, click here.
Key highlights of the directive
1. Successful bidder shall make an application in Form 1 as given in appendix of the EIA notification 2006
2. All such applications shall be considered by the concerned expert appraisal committee or the state level expert appraisal committee
3. This committee (either state or center) will conduct a due diligence on existing EC and the mining plan for application and decide if EC can be appraised to same validity period as was initially granted
4. This committee may stipulate case specific additional conditions to mining projects
Participants fear that this directive may delay the transition period after Mar 2020 when leases are getting expired and will be handed over to successful bidder.
Earlier, it was anticipated that government may extend exiting environmental clearances (EC) for 2 years and successful bidders have to get all regulatory clearances within this period.
Leave a Reply