State bodies to grant green nod for civilian airport expansions

Environmental clearance for all airport expansion projects including airstrips for commercial use will be considered by the state environment impact assessment authorities (SIEAAs), as per a notification issued by the environment ministry on April 20 in a move that is expected to give states greater leeway in approving these projects.

The notification has also delegated environmental appraisal of various non-coal mining projects, river valley projects and thermal power projects to the state appraisal body saying that the environmental clearance process needs to be decentralised for facilitating environmental clearances at the state level.

While these were already being considered by SEIAAs, the capacity threshold up to which these projects can be considered at the state level has been increased significantly in the draft notification. For example, SEIAAs used to consider mining leases involving less than 100 hectares. This has been increased to the entire mining lease area in respect of minor mineral mining leases and a maximum of 250 hectares for major mineral mining leases other than for coal.