The Narendra Modi government has cleared seven big-ticket investment projects worth Rs 21,000 crore, some of whom have been held up for decades, because of hurdles ranging from environmental issues to financing problems.
The oldest among them, which has been on the drawing board for over 30 years, is a 235 kilometre railway line that is critical to tap Chhattisgarh's second largest iron ore reserves and ensure the survival of the Bhilai Steel Plant whose current iron ore sources are expected to run out in a few years.
The Steel Authority of India (SAIL)BSE 0.32 %, which is partly funding the rail project along with NMDC, had first proposed tapping the iron ore riches in Chhattisgarh's Rowghat area in 1983. A vital second stage forest clearance for theRs 1,105-crore railway line between Dallirajhra and Jagdalpur in the Naxal-affected Bastar district has now been signed off by new environment and forest minister Prakash Javadekar.
Apart from this railway line, red-tape problems plaguing a major hydro-electricity project in Sikkim that has been in the works since 2005, a 120-kilometre six-lane highway in Karnataka, a four million tonne iron ore processing plant being set up by state-run NMDCBSE -0.25 % in Chhattisgarh and three major power projects that could raise India's electricity generation capacity by over 3,500 MW, have also been fixed.
"The resolution of long-pending issues for big investment projects has started in earnest under the new government, with policy problems facing seven large projects having been resolved already," said a senior government official aware of the development.
Source: ET
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