Minister of road transport and highways Kamal Nath has written to the environment and forests ministry to speed up the process of project clearances.

In a letter to Jairam Ramesh, minister of state environment ministry, Nath has asked him to approve eight projects that have been pending for the last three-four months. Some of these projects include Jhansi-Lalitpur NH-26 (49 km), Chattisgarh-Maharashtra boder NH-6 (85 km) and four laning of Khalghat in Madhya Pradesh-Maharashtra border NH-3 (55.834 km).

“The projects have been pending for three-four months. Clearances from the forest advisory committee of ministry of environment ministry are yet to come. We do not know what could be the possible reasons for delay in approving these projects,” a senior road ministry official said requesting anonymity.

The environment ministry, however, may take a little while before speeding up approval process for road projects. “We have not started working toward expediting road projects as of now. I have written back to Kamal Nath,” Jairam Ramesh said.

These projects are already in the process of construction. Nath, in his letter has mentioned that it was not possible to make any change in the designs of these projects due to technical reasons.

“These projects are about to complete. It’s only some portions of the projects that are awaiting environment ministry’s nod. If there is further delay, the projects will be stuck,” said the official. Environment clearances for infrastructure projects is one of the major hurdles. For coal industry, the environment ministry has decided to classify applications seeking forestry clearances for mining as ‘go and no-go’ based on their location to avoid delays. There is no such classification for roads and highway projects.

“The environment clearances play a major role in cost of the projects as well. Earlier, the letter of intent for any road project was offered only after acquiring 40 per cent land. Now, the limit has been raised to 80 per cent. In case, there is a delay in environment clearances, it would eventually affect the awarding of new projects,” M Murali, director general of national highways builders federation.