The Group of Infrastructure Committee (GIC) chaired by Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Tuesday discussed the environment clearances and land policies of the railways and road transport. It was resolved to make a comprehensive guidelines for environment and forest clearance for road, rail, and aviation related infrastructures.
The stakeholder ministries led by Union Ministers Piyush Goyal, Ashwini Vaishnaw and Bhupender Yadav agreed to look into the issues and expedite infrastructure projects to accelerate PM Gati Shakti scheme’s progress.
This was the 10th meeting of the GIC to address existing inter-ministerial issues on the implementation of various infrastructure projects, an official statement of the government said.
Several issues were placed on the agenda for deliberation to expedite the progress of ongoing infrastructure projects. These included issues related to pending forest and environment clearances, facilitation of working permissions/approvals, and ensuring land allocation/transfer and release of funds, noted the statement.
The statement said discussions were also held on policy matters related to environment/forest/wildlife clearance, railways and power, among others. Environment clearances and land policies of the railways and MoRTH and making comprehensive guidelines for environment and forest clearance were also discussed at length.
“The concerned officers were directed to expedite the process of clearance and implementation of the above matters, the statement said, adding that the stakeholder ministries/ departments agreed to look into various issues raised and resolve the same in order to expedite infrastructure projects,” read the statement.
MoS MoRTH and Civil Aviation Gen (Dr.) V. K. Singh (Retd.), Minister of State for Power Krishan Pal Gurjar, Minister of State for Ports, Shipping and Waterways Shripad Naik, and Minister of State for Defence & Tourism Ajay Bhatt, too were present in the meeting.
Senior Officers from Road Transport and Highways Ministry, Defence Ministry, Ports, Shipping and Waterways (MoPSW), Environment, Forests and Climate Change, Railways, Commerce, Industry, Power, Civil Aviation Ministries, NHAI and representatives from States attended the meeting.