Coastal Maharashtra projects halted till June 2011

NEW DELHI: The Union environment and forests ministry on Monday extended the moratorium on environmental clearances to new projects in the coastal Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg districts of Maharashtra up to June 2011.

In mid-August, the ministry had imposed a four-month moratorium on entertaining any new project for mandatory environmental clearance which expired at the end of 2010.

The environmental clearances given prior to the moratorium, the ministry clarified, would continue to be in force and valid. The ministry has referred the issue of clearing projects in the biodiversity hot spot region to the Western Ghat Ecology Expert Panel headed by Madhav Gadgil which is yet to give its recommendations.

There were indications that the ministry preferred to take a holistic view of the impact of all proposed projects before according clearance.