Lok Sabha Question No. 2193 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2024-08-05
Subject: Clearance through Parivesh Portal
Ministry: ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE
Asked by: Shri P V Midhun Reddy

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

## MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2193

TO BE ANSWERED ON 05.08.2024

## Clearance through Parivesh Portal

## 2193. SHRI P V MIDHUN REDDY:

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

- (a) the number of clearances provided through the Parivesh Portal since its inception;
- (b) the average time taken for granting clearance through the Portal;
- (c) whether the Portal drastically reduced the time taken for grant of various clearances and if so, the details thereof;
- (d) whether it is true that increased scope for the portal may dilute environmental safeguards in place; and
- (e) if so, the details thereof and the steps taken to address the situation?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE (SHRI KIRTI VARDHAN SINGH)

(a) 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  Singlewindow 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.

(b) &(c) 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.

(d) &(e) 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.

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