In pursuance of the spirit of ‘Digital India’ and capturing the essence of Minimum Government and Maximum Governance, the government had launched a single window portal “PARIVESH (Pro Active and Responsive Facilitation by Interactive and Virtuous Environmental Single-window Hub)” on 10.08.2018 for Environment clearance (EC), Forest clearance (FC), Wildlife (WL) and Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) clearances.  As per the details available on PARIVESH Portal, more than 50, 000 clearances (EC, FC, WL and CRZ) have been granted so far.

Ministry of Environment, forest and Climate Change has taken several measures through policy and technological interventions in order to remove redundancy and to streamline the clearance process without compromising on the rigor of environmental safeguards. Due to the above measures, the average time taken for grant of EC at the central level, from the date of submission of complete proposal, has reduced significantly to double digit in 2023-2024 as against the stipulated timeline of 105 days. Similarly, average time taken for grant of ‘in-principle’ FC approval has also been reduced to 150 days in 2023-24.

The PARIVESH portal launched in August 2018 has met its objectives and facilitated uninterrupted services to the industries even during difficult period of CoVID. However, in order to enhance the Users experience, scope of existing PARIVESH has been expanded to ensure due diligence and adherence to environmental safeguards while examining project proposals by including new functionalities based on emerging technologies, such as GIS based Decision Support System (DSS), advance Data Analytics etc. Some of the transformational modules included in the expanded scope are: Know Your Approval (KYA) module which provides the tentative list of clearances required and to support the project proponent in accurately assessing the environmental sensitivity and planning of the project before its execution; Decision Support System (DSS) a spatial-based visualization and analytical module to provide tools for exploration of the project proximity and to help the expert committees and regulatory authority in taking a considered decision in expeditious manner taking all related environmental concerns into account; Common Application Form (CAF) and Application Form Management module to minimize the repetitive efforts of the Users and at the same time to ensure the single version of the truth across all applicable clearances and Compliance Management module to ensure reduction in compliance burden and improving ease of doing business. However, consideration of proposals for grant of EC is on the basis of EIA/EMP, examined by the duly constituted Expert Appraisal Committees (EACs) and final approval is given only after incorporating general and specific conditions so as to ensure compliances of environmental standards and safeguards.

This information was given by the Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Shri Kirti Vardhan Singh in a written reply in the Lok Sabha today.

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MJPS/GS