Faster approvals for critical minerals, but no green law exemption: Centre
New Delhi, August 18 (PTI) Ministry of Environment, created a separate category in the online cleaning portal to accelerate the approvals for mining projects containing critical minerals, which aims to increase the local resource supply required for clean energy and advanced technologies, the government on Monday.
In a written response in Lok Sabha, the Minister of State State Minister Kirti Vardhan Singh said the Ministry of Mining demanded faster permission for such projects in February and then the new facility was added to the PariveSH 2.0 portal on March 13.
After the amendments made to the 1957 Mineral and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Law, Step gave 24 mineral auctions, centrally defined and strategically defined.
These include Lithium, Nickel, Tungsten, titanium and graffiti, which India imports to a great extent but needs sectors such as defense, electronic and renewable energy.
So far, 34 blocks of these minerals have been auctioned nationwide, and the minister added that they have been vital to meet the target of self -reliance for India’s energy transition and the net zero target for 2070.
Singh also said that projects could not be exempted from the Forest Protection Law, the 1980 or Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) notification.
Authorized, the new subcategory on the portal was created to improve the monitoring of bids requiring central approval within the scope of the Forest Law.
He also reported that detailed instructions were published on March 17, 2025 for linear projects such as highways and railways. They allow more than 20,000 cubic meters of soil to be removed without a separate environmental cleaning subject to the conditions specified in accordance with the modified EIA rules.
According to him, the time limits of reference and environmental cleaning applications have not changed within the scope of the EIA notification. State governments will continue to play a leading role in the protection of forests and wildlife, including the limitation of borders and numericalization of borders and the action against violations.
Joint Forest Management Committees and Eco-Development Groups are also included in the monitoring, while violations of forest law minibus (Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan) Adhiniyam, under 1980, are punished under 1980.
In January this year, the Union Cabinet cleared the national critical mineral mission, which includes discovery, mining, processing and recovery of these minerals.
The mission aims to secure the mineral materials in which India is currently connected to several countries and provides a faster regulatory way for projects in this sector.
