“Need for road map for integrating and digitizing all projects” – Sidharth Birla, President, FICCI
New Delhi, 6 June, 2014: Welcoming the launch of on-line environment clearance mechanism, FICCI President Mr Sidharth Birla said “This is a path breaking step by the Government as it would bring transparency and objectivity to the process of clearance and ensure timely implementation of projects”. Providing timelines at every step of clearance and making it on line will help in tracking the status of the project on a real time basis.
FICCI has been working with Ministry of Environment and Forest and the Project Monitoring Group (PMG) under Cabinet Secretariat for mapping and digitizing each stage of clearance process under Environmental Impact Assessment Notification 2006 and Forest Conservation Act. Besides environment and forest clearance, FICCI is also mapping the mining clearance process under the MMDR (Mines and Minerals Development and Regulation Act) along with PMG and Ministry of Mines.
Encouraged by this initiative of the Government, Mr Birla further added “Government should now draw a time bound road map for integrating and digitizing all the permissions for setting up the projects under one single platform which would boost investor confidence and ensure faster delivery of projects”.
“In addition, there is a need to holistically look at issues related to project clearance process by rationalizing and simplifying the whole process of clearance not just at the Centre but at the State level also and building the capacities of the state regulatory agencies to gear up to the new process. This seemingly looks feasible in the current political scenario and we need to make use of this opportunity”, Mr Birla stated.