Petroleum Minister Veerappa Moily, who is holding additional charge of Environment Ministry, has cleared the hurdles for auction of 54 oil and gas blocks in the country.
According to sources, various mega projects worth above Rs 45,000 crore gathering dust in Environment Ministry, are also in queue for immediate clearance. Most of these projects have received forest and other clearances and are waiting for final nod from the Ministry.
The sources said that these 54 oil and gas blocks are expected to figure in the upcoming round auctions under the New Exploration licencing Policy (NElP), that are open to both public and private sector companies in exploration and production of hydrocarbons.
“Out of l 74 blocks to be put on auction for the next round of NElP, the Forest Survey Institute had already cleared 54 blocks. These are now being approved by the Environment Minister. Now with Moily being at the helm of affairs himself, this may well be one of the first clearances by him,” said the official sources.
The sources further said after Moily’s taking over as the Environment Minister, various large infrastructure projects are expected to move up in the days to come. The official sources said that about 600 projects are languishing for just a nod from Environment Ministry. A number of such projects are being shuttled between the ministry and developers over minor procedural and documentation issues. Most of them have been cleared by various committees of the ministry or at the last stage of the green clearance process.
For example, the 800 MW Tawang II project, being developed by National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) had got stage-I green clearance from the forest advisory committee in February this year.
However, in the absence of a formal letter from the environment ministry endorsing the clearance, the project has continued to be held up. Sources said that the file for the final clearance has been with the office of the environment minister since April 18.
Similarly, the Chhatrasal coal block, of Sasan UMPP associated with Reliance Power, may have got green signal from an empowered group of ministers last year but the green ministry is still silent on the status of final clearance.
likewise, 500 MW thermal power plant in Maharashtra and 1,980 MW project in Jharkhand, of Tata Power besides mining proposals of SAIl in Durg, Chhattisgarh, amongst others, are still awaiting final environment clearance by the environment ministry. Other projects as the Mahan coal block jointly developed by Essar and Hindalco, in Madhya Pradesh are also expected to get clearance.
The sources said Moily is also likely to initiate steps to speed up the clearance of Rs 50,000 crore POSCO steel project.
While the case of the steel major is pending with the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on the issue of final approval of its resettlement plan, the project should move fast henceforth, as the company is already in the process of completing the land acquisition process, said an official.