The group of infrastructure committee chaired by Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Tuesday requested the Environment Ministry to expedite the process of giving environment clearances to 12 infrastructure projects. The committee has also decided enter into an Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to the effect that they would not charge each other for setting up projects as the payment is only Government to Government.
Sources said that a high powered committee headed by Telecom Secretary and consisting of Secretary RTH, Power, Petroleum, Member ( Engg ) Railways has been formed to look into modalities for sharing infrastructure for utilities like water pipes, telecom cables etc. It was also decided that these Ministries would enter into an MoU to the effect that they would not charge each other for setting up projects as the payment is only Government to Government.
The projects that are stuck for environment clearances include Singara-Binjabahal,Birmitrapur-Barakot, Chandikhole-Duburi-Talcher in Odisha; Mumbai-Vadodara Expressway;4 laning of Jhansi- Khajuraho section (Pkg-II) of NH-75/76 from Km 76.3 -161.7 near Bamitha town on Hybrid Annuity Mode.; 4/6 lane of delinked portion of 28.7 km 624.480 to Km 653.225( Seoni - Khawasa) of NH-7 on EPC Mode, 4 lanning of Hiran River to Sindoor River from Km 66.00 to Km 130 of NH-12 on EPC mode.,Road tunnel viaduct and Churhat Bypass of Rewa-Sidhi section of NH-75E from km 33/200 to 55/400 on Hybrid Annuity Mode.
The other projects are four lane road along with 6-lane (3+3 lane 2 tubes) of Tunnel ] in MP; Maheskut - Saharsa - Purnea; Construction of Approaches to Rail um Road bridge across river Ganga at Munger Ghat near Munger from Km 0.00(Km 74.7 of NH-80) to Km 9.394(start point of Rail cum Road viaduct) and Km 0.075(end point of Rail cum Road Viaduct) to Km 5.198(Km 262.8 of NH-31) in the State of Bihar(Contract Package No RD/BH/2) 4 laning of Munger - Mirzachowki, NH-80 in Bihar. ludhiana - Talwand
Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal, Union IT minister Manoj Sinha, Union Environment Minister Dr Harshvardhan, Union Power Minister R K Singh and Chief Minister of Uttarakhand, Trivendra Singh Rawat attended the meeting.
According to sources, BSNl has been requested to improve its connection quality for the River Information System on North-West-I between Farakka and Patna. "The quality at present is very poor. Telecom Ministry are in the process of upgrading it," he said.
Sources further said that about clearance / approval for Railway over Bridge,it was stated that the progress is satisfactory. It was however decided that specific timelines would be set for these approvals for strict adherence. The sixth meeting of Group of Infrastructure was held on Tuesday.
