Environmental clearance in India, who needs EC and how to apply
Environmental clearance (EC) is prior approval under the EIA Notification 2006 for listed projects. See Category A vs B, the process, documents and SEIAA.
Environmental clearance (EC), also written environment clearance, is the prior approval that India's EIA Notification 2006 requires before construction or land preparation starts on a project listed in its Schedule. It also applies to an expansion, modernisation or product-mix change that crosses a Schedule threshold (notification, para 2).
Category A projects are cleared centrally (what people often search as MoEF clearance) by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) on the recommendation of the central Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC). Category B projects are cleared by the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) on the recommendation of the State Expert Appraisal Committee (SEAC) (approval authorities), and every application goes through the PARIVESH portal.
The notification is S.O. 1533(E) of 14 September 2006, issued under the Environment (Protection) Act 1986, and it replaced the 1994 EIA notification (Gazette copy). For day-to-day work, use MoEFCC's compilation as amended up to July 2026, keeping in mind that the Gazette text prevails where the two differ.
What environmental clearance means
EC means prior environmental clearance, not a generic environmental certificate. Before EC you may secure the land, but you may not start construction or prepare the site.
Expansions are handled in paras 2 and 7(ii), as amended by S.O. 980(E) of 2 March 2021 among others. Some changes that do not increase pollution load do not need fresh EC, so check the current text before you file an expansion.
EC is also separate from forest clearance and from the consent to establish or operate issued by the State Pollution Control Board.
Category A and Category B projects
The 2006 Schedule shows where the thresholds sat. As first published:
- mining leases of 50 ha or more were Category A, and leases from 5 ha to under 50 ha were Category B;
- thermal power plants of 500 MW or more were A, and smaller ones B;
- cement plants were A at 1.0 million tonnes a year or more, and B below that;
- petroleum refining and technical-grade pesticides were always A;
- synthetic organic chemicals, including dyes and bulk drugs, were A outside a notified industrial area and B inside one.
Several entries have been amended since, so check your sector in the current consolidated Schedule before relying on any threshold.
Building and construction (Schedule item 8) is a good example. Item 8 was substituted by S.O. 523(E) of 29 January 2025, and the Supreme Court upheld the new entry but on 5 August 2025 quashed Note 1, which had exempted industrial sheds, schools, colleges and educational hostels (order).
At screening, Category B splits into B1 and B2. B1 projects need an environmental impact assessment (EIA) report, while B2 projects need no EIA report, no scoping and no public consultation (notification, para 7).
Under the General Condition, a Category B project is appraised as Category A if any part of it lies within 5 km of a protected area, a CPCB-identified critically polluted area, a notified eco-sensitive area or an inter-state or international boundary. The distance stays at 10 km for river valley projects, thermal power plants, industrial estates, parks and SEZs (item 7(c)) and common hazardous-waste TSDFs (item 7(d)), and adjoining states can agree to reduce or waive the inter-state distance (consolidated text, p. 30). The General Condition does not apply to items 8(a) and 8(b) (CREDAI, 12 September 2025).
Under the Specific Condition, units inside an industrial estate or SEZ that already holds EC do not need separate EC, as long as they meet the terms of the estate's EC (Gazette copy).
The environmental clearance process in India
The environmental clearance procedure has up to four stages: screening (Category B only), scoping, public consultation and appraisal. Not every stage applies to every project (notification, para 7).
Application and screening
Apply on Form 1 with a pre-feasibility report once the site is identified and before any construction. Construction projects also file Form 1A and give a conceptual plan in place of the pre-feasibility report, and Form 1M covers minor minerals up to 5 ha (consolidated text, p. 6). For Category B, the SEAC then screens the project into B1 or B2.
Scoping
The EAC or SEAC sets the Terms of Reference (ToR) for the EIA study. Since S.O. 751(E) of 17 February 2020, sector-specific standard ToR are published, and some proposals, such as border highways, units in approved industrial estates and expansions of projects that already hold EC, get standard ToR online within 7 working days of acceptance. Other proposals are referred to the committee within 30 days, failing which standard ToR issue online on day 30. ToR stay valid for 4 years, or 5 years for river valley and hydro projects (July 2026 text), and B2 projects skip scoping altogether.
Public consultation
Category A and B1 projects go through public consultation. The State Pollution Control Board, or the UT Pollution Control Committee, runs the public hearing and normally completes it within 45 days of your request, after at least 30 days' public notice, and written responses are invited as well (Appendix IV).
Appraisal and decision
The EAC or SEAC appraises the project within 60 days of receiving the final EIA report and the outcome of public consultation, and sends its recommendation to the authority within the next 15 days. The authority then decides within 45 days of the recommendation, which para 8 expresses as 105 days from receipt of the final EIA report or the complete application (para 8).
Concealing or misrepresenting material information makes the application liable to rejection, and a granted EC liable to cancellation (notification, para 8).
Documents and the PARIVESH portal
PARIVESH is the single-window portal for environment, forest, wildlife and CRZ clearances. It went live centrally on 10 August 2018 and for states on 16 August 2019 (PIB, 27 March 2023).
A typical EC application on PARIVESH includes the following (official forms list):
- a Common Application Form, including a KML file of the project site (CAF user manual, p. 33);
- Form 1 Parts A and B for ToR, and Form 1 Part C for EC, with the final EIA and management plan, an executive summary of the project report, the approved mining plan for a mine, and, where a hearing was held, the signed English proceedings, issues raised, responses and an action plan;
- Forms 3 and 4 for ToR and EC amendments, plus separate forms for extension and transfer.
After you get EC
S.O. 1807(E) of 12 April 2022 set these validity periods:
| Project type | Validity | Extension |
|---|---|---|
| River valley | 13 years | up to 2 years |
| Nuclear power and fuel processing | 15 years | up to 5 years |
| Other non-mining projects | 10 years | up to 1 year |
| Mining | project life in the approved mining plan, up to 30 years | up to 20 more years, ending at lease validity, mine life or 50 years, whichever is earlier |
For ordinary projects, validity is the period within which production must start; for construction projects it is the period to complete construction. Unexpired ECs received the longer periods automatically (OM, 13 December 2022), and time lost to court or NCLT proceedings is excluded (PIB, 31 December 2025). Port and harbour projects should also check S.O. 5189(E) of 21 September 2026 on PARIVESH before using this table.
Half-yearly compliance reports on the EC conditions are filed electronically by 1 June and 1 December, and they are public documents (notification, para 10).
During its validity, an EC can be transferred to another legal person on the same terms and for the remaining period, either on the transferor's application or on the transferee's application with the transferor's written no-objection, without going back to the appraisal committee. A non-mining EC can also be split between legal persons (para 11).
Recent changes to check
- Standalone pumped storage projects meeting set criteria (S.O. 2226(E), 18 May 2023) and airport expansions with a valid EC and no additional land (PIB, 31 December 2025) are appraised as B2, and common effluent treatment plants no longer need prior EC, subject to safeguards (PIB, 28 January 2026).
- S.O. 3862(E) of 13 July 2026, as shown in the July 2026 compilation, raises the terms of SEIAA, EAC and SEAC members to 4 years and adds a Standing Authority to act when a SEIAA is non-functional. Confirm the Gazette text before relying on it.
The rules on ex post facto EC, for projects that started without prior EC, changed several times between 2017 and 2026. On 29 July 2026 the Supreme Court held the one-time window in S.O. 804(E) of 14 March 2017 valid as a time-bound measure, quashed the July 2021 office memorandum with prospective effect, left existing ECs valid, and said ex post facto EC is possible only through a valid section 3 notification. Read the judgment before relying on this.
SEIAA and state-level clearance
The Central Government constitutes each SEIAA from names nominated by the state: a Chairman who is an expert in the EIA process, an expert Member, and a Member-Secretary who is a serving state officer. The SEAC appraises Category B projects and recommends, and the SEIAA decides (notification, paras 3 and 4).
Under the 2006 text, Category B projects in a state without a duly constituted SEIAA or SEAC were treated as Category A (Gazette copy). If your state authority is not sitting, check the Standing Authority added by S.O. 3862(E), noted above.
States such as Maharashtra, Gujarat and Karnataka apply the central Schedule. Fees, portals and meeting dates vary from state to state, but the legal test is the same.
- Environmental clearance in Maharashtra: the SEAC recommends to SEIAA Maharashtra, project documents go on PARIVESH, and scrutiny fees are paid as set out in the SEIAA notice on the MPCB EC portal, which also carries agendas and notices (SEAC-1 notice, 23 September 2026). Confirm the current scrutiny fee with your state's SEIAA before you file.
- Gujarat agendas, minutes and granted ECs are on MoEFCC's Gujarat record page.
- Karnataka's granted ECs are listed here, with the current SEIAA composition.
- Telangana records are on the state record page, and the Telangana Pollution Control Board runs public hearings.
RegAffairs AI's cited answer on environmental clearance links each point to the stored notification it comes from.