Environmental clearance for stand alone railway line

[Dr.M.V.R.N.Acharyulu]

   Is it a mandatory  Requirement to obtain environmental clearance  for  stand alone railway line to cater the needs of  industry. Can someone educate me in this regard ?

[Prof Dr V N Sivasankara Pillai]

Logically, yes. However, it is not spelt out in EIA rules. Private project proponent does not have the legal shielding of IR. In fact the usage rail road itself is indicative of its similarity to road projects.

[Dr.M.V.R.N.Acharyulu]

thanking you sir, all highway projects, elevated expressways  falls under perview of EIA notification even though dedicated railway lines which are also in involvement land acquisition,passing through forest land and may attract CFE and CFO of respective state PCB.

 

Prof Dr V N Sivasankara Pillai said:

Logically, yes. However, it is not spelt out in EIA rules. Private project proponent does not have the legal shielding of IR. In fact the usage rail road itself is indicative of its similarity to road projects.

[Gullapalli Udayabhaksar]

All railwaylines which are stand alone projects are out side EC domain as per indian law, except it is a part of comprehensive project like merry go round etc. But it requires FC approvals. Pl refer to Konkan rialway judgement, which explicitly state this.

 

[Ajay B Dwivedi]

If we understand the meaning of infrastructural projects any conveyance line is understood to be covered. Be it road, airport, harbour, canal, pipeline and for this case it is railway line. There cannot be any discrimination only because the Govt. is expected to be the nodal agency.

Simili is crude and may sound scatological but, a urinal in an airport functionally does not differ from Sulabh only because the operator or owner is different.