Lok Sabha Question No. 4310 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2023-03-27
Subject: PARIVESH Portal
Ministry: ENVIRONMENT,  FORESTS AND CLIMATE CHANGE
Asked by: Pocha Brahmananda Reddy, Beesetti  Venkata Satyavathi

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.4310

TO BE ANSWERED ON 27.03.2023

## PARIVESH Portal

## 4310. SHRI POCHA BRAHMANANDA REDDY: DR. BEESETTI VENKATA SATYAVATHI:

Will the Minister of ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE be pleased to state:

- (a) the aims and objectives of the PARIVESH Portal;
- (b) the  number  of  clearances  provided  through  the  PARIVESH  Portal  since  its  inception, year-wise;
- (c) the details of average time taken for granting clearance through the Portal;
- (d) whether the Portal drastically reduced the time taken for grant of various clearances and if so, the details thereof;
- (e) whether it is true that increased scope for the portal may dilute environmental safeguards in place;
- (f) if so, the details thereof and the steps taken by the Government to address the situation;
- (g) the number of pending proposals for clearance with the Government;
- (h) whether the PARIVESH portal has been efficient in reducing the time taken for obtaining environmental clearances; and
- (i) if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefore?

## ANSWER

MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE (SHRI ASHWINI KUMAR CHOUBEY)

- (a) PARIVESH is a web based, role based workflow application which has been developed for online submission and monitoring of the proposals submitted by the proponents seeking for Environmental (EC), Forest (FC), Wildlife (WL) and Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) clearances. Main aim and objective of the PARIVESH portal is to provide a 'single window' solution by process automationof aforementioned four major clearances through process & data synchronization, leveragingemerging technologies such as GIS, Advance Data Analytics etcfor an expeditious, transparent and effective decision making  without compromising  onthe environmental safeguards.
- (b) 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 at Central level and on 16.08.2019 at State

level  for  handling  four  major  clearances  as  mentioned  in  reply  to  para  (a)  above.As  per  the details available on PARIVESH Portal, the total number of clearances (EC, FC, WL and CRZ) granted since inception, is as under:

|   Year |   Number of Clearance granted |
|--------|-------------------------------|
|   2018 |                           577 |
|   2019 |                          3498 |
|   2020 |                          8169 |
|   2021 |                          8793 |
|   2022 |                         12496 |

- (c) (d)  (h)& (i) 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  with  the  environmental  safeguards.  Due  to  the  above  measures,  the average  time  taken  for  grant  of  EC  and  CRZ  clearance  at  the  central  level  has  reduced significantly from more than 150 days in 2019 and 102 days in 2020 to less than 70 days in 2022, respectively.  Similarly,  average  time  taken  for  grant  of  'in-principle'  FC  approval  has been calculated to be ~180 days for the financial year (FY) 2021-22 against 188 days in the previous FY.
- (e)& (f) Theexisting PARIVESH portal launched at the Central level 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, advance Data Analytics etc. Some of the transformational modules includedin the expanded  scope  are:  Know  Your  Approval  (KYA)  moduleto  provide  the  tentative  list  of clearances  required  and  to  support  the  project  proponent  in  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  andto  help  the  expert  committees  and  regulatory  authority  in  taking  a  considered decision  in  expeditious  manner;  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  ensurereduction  in  compliance  burden  and  improving  ease  of  doing business.  However,  all  processing  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.

(g) Grant  of  clearances/approvals  under  different  Acts  and  Rules  is  a  continuous  process. Proposals received for various activities are examined / appraisedas per the procedure defined in different Acts and Rules. Prompt decision is taken by the Central Government on the proposals which  are  complete  in  all  respect  as  per  the  timeline  prescribed  in  different  Acts  and Rules/Guidelines.