Comments
The Government on Friday reviewed the status of 76 pending projects worth Rs 3.5 lakh crore as part of its attempts to fast-track infrastructure development. The review meeting was convened by Finance Minister P. Chidambaram.
The 76 projects reviewed relate to coal, road, power and mining sectors, official sources said.
Among those who attended the meeting were Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma; Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan; Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal; Petroleum Minister Jaipal Reddy; Road Transport & Highways Minister, C.P. Joshi and Power Minister, Veerappa Moily.
Various Ministries are understood to have raised the issue of environment and forest clearances coming in the way of project implementation. Indications are that this issue may be sorted out at the level of the Prime Minister.
The Environment Minister said out of the 76 projects, 35 relating to environment were discussed, but only two of these were currently pending before the Ministry.
Coal Minister Jaiswal said soon after the meeting that some more coal blocks would be de-allocated.
The Government had, on Thursday, decided to de-allocate four coal blocks and invoke bank guarantees furnished by certain private firms for failing to meet the timeline on production and development of mines.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.