India, Dec. 11 -- A parliamentary panel on Wednesday said that efforts should be intensified to reduce the average time taken for seeking green clearances for coal mining projects in both public and private sectors. The panel also sought the reasons for the differences in the average time required to obtain environment clearance (EC) and forest clearance (FC) for the projects.
The Standing Committee on coal, mines and steel chaired by Anurag Singh Thakur said that the average time taken for EC for Central Public Sector Undertakings (CPSUs) is roughly 15 to 18 months and the same for commercial coal blocks of private sector is around 26 months, whereas, the average time taken for FC approvals ranges from 24-30 months for CPSUs and up to 34 ...