WEB PORTAL LAUNCHED FOR ONLINE FOREST CLEARANCE

WEB PORTAL FOR ONLINE FOREST CLEARANCE LAUNCHED

 In a major boost to clear big industrial projects stuck in red tapism, Prakash Javadekar, Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, recently launched web portal for online submission and monitoring of crucial forest clearance proposals. Before this, the ministry had launched online web portal for submission of environmental clearances. This portal will minimize the need for human interface between project proponents and officials, boThat the Central and state levels. During the launch of the portal, Javadekar said that these measures were intended to bring in more transparency, efficiency and accountability in the grant of regulatory clearances. He assured industrialists that the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change was taking necessary measures to fast-track the process of regulatory clearances, viz. forest clearance, environment clearance and wildlife clearance for a faster economic growth, while ensuring that development and conservation of environment go hand-inhand and in a transparent manner. It is important to note that ministry has taken various step to ramp up policy-based clearances. Recently, wiTha view to addressing the security and strategic interests of the nation, the ministry had accorded general approval under the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 for diversion of forest land required for construction and widening of two-lane roads by the BRO.

NTPC RECEIVES 34 PROPOSALS FOR ACQUISITION OF POWER PLANTS

In a bid to augment the power generation capacity, nation’s largest power generator NTPC had sought expression of interest (EOI) from various state electricity boards, generation companies, independent power producers and others for possible acquisition by NTPC. This EOI was floated by the company in the month of February 2014 and in response NTPC has received 34 proposals for possible acquisition. Piyush Goyal, Minister of State (I/C) for Power, Coal & New and Renewable Energy, has given this information in the Rajya Sabha. On the other hand, company sources informed DSIJ that of the 34 proposals received, 6-7 proposals were really interesting and could be executed after due diligence. NTPC board will take a call on this issue.

IRAN GAS PIPELINE PROJECT STUCK DUE TO UNRESOLVED CRITICAL ISSUES

Much hyped Iran-Pakistan- India gas pipeline seems to be stuck due to some critical issues that remained unresolved since 2005. The 150 MMSCMD gas pipeline project was proposed between Iran-Pakistan-India and a joint working group (JWG) was formed, but even after various discussions, no concrete solution is in sight. Dharamendra Pradhan, Minister of State (I/C) for Petroleum & Natural Gas, has informed the Lok Sabha recently that several critical issues, including delivery point of Iranian gas, the structure of project including project finance, guarantees related to safety of the pipeline and security of supply, pricing of gas, location of international seat of arbitration, etc. are yet to be resolved. Till these critical issues remain unresolved, there would be no further progress on this project. It is important to note that in the first phase, 60 MMSCMD of gas was expected to be produced, while 90 MMSCMD was planned in the second phase.

REC SIGNS MOU WITH TEACH FOR INDIA

Under the CSR initiative, Rural Electrification Corporation (REC) has signed MOU with Teach for India for supporting 10 classrooms in municipal school in northern and eastern parts of Delhi. Th rough the partnership, they are working to improve the learning levels of students in the identifi ed MCD schools wiThan overall objective of transforming the lives of children. The project is called RECL Super Classrooms and caters to some of the poorest communities that Teach For India works within the city. The year-long partnership was launched by P J Thakkar, Director (Technical) of REC.