Government reconstitutes second State Expert Appraisal Committee in Maharashtra

NEW DELHI: The Environment Ministry has reconstituted the second State Expert Appraisal Committee (SEAC) to assess projects falling within Mumbai metropolitan region and Konkan division.

In a recent notification, the Ministry said it has "reconstituted the second SEAC for appraisal of projects falling in category 8 of the schedule of EIA notification 2006 in the Mumbai metropolitan region and Konkan division in Maharashtra."

The seven-member SEAC-II will be headed by retired IAS officer Johny Joseph. The term of the chairman and members of the committee will be till October 2016, it said.

The state government will provide all financial and logistic support to the SEAC-II, it added.

In Maharashtra, there are two committees -- SEAC-I and SEAC-II -- that appraise projects for environment clearance.

The SEAC-I looks at projects from across the state, while the latter assess projects from within the Mumbai metropolitan region and Konkan division.

These committees then recommend the projects, for either approval or rejection, to the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA).