Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate change (MoEF&CC), Govt. of India has issued Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification dated 14th September, 2006 for according Environment Clearance (EC) to 8 categories of industries/projects.
Categorization of projects and activities
The eight categories of industries/projects require Environmental Clearance from State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) / State Expert Appraisal Committee (SEAC). These categories of industries/projects are further categorized into A & B by Ministry of Environment & Forests, Govt. of India.
The ‘A’ categories of industries are in terms of production above the specified threshold limits. The ‘B’ category industries are smaller units in terms of production with or without specified minimum threshold of production.
The Category-B projects are sub-categorized into B-1 & B-2 category. The projects requiring an Environmental Impact Assessment report are termed Category ‘B1’ and others which do not require Environment Impact Assessment report are Category ‘B2’ projects.
All the mining projects having mine area less than 5 hectares and in cluster formation less than 25 hectares have been categorized as category B-2 projects and competency lies with the District Environment Impact Assessment Authority (DEIAA). However, the competency of all the remaining projects of category B-1 and B-2 lies with the SEIAA