India mulls blanket PCPIR environmental clearance

31 October 2007 16:32  [Source: ICIS news]

MUMBAI (ICIS news)--New Delhi is mulling a proposal to grant a blanket environmental clearance to the proposed petroleum, chemicals and petrochemicals investment regions (PCPIRs), so that companies need not apply for individual approvals, a senior government official said late on Tuesday.

“The plan is to give a one-time [environmental] clearance for the entire region [mega-chemical hubs], depending on the load that the area can take,” said Harmeet Singh, chemicals director at India’s Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers.

“However, state governments are waiting to concretise their downstream plans in order to decide their area’s environmental loads, and then give proposals for blanket clearances,” she added.

Singh was speaking at the Asian Chemical and Petrochemical Investment Conference being held at Mumbai, which was jointly organised by ICIS and the Indian Chemical Council.

Delegates representing leading Indian and foreign chemical and petrochemical companies considering projects in PCPIRs said that getting environmental clearance in India for such large projects is a drawn-out affair, hindering investment in such regions.

Singh also clarified that there are no special tax incentives for PCPIRs. However, special economic zones (SEZs) falling under these mammoth regions would continue to get incentives as per government regulation, she said.

The government will provide infrastructure and utilities such as power and effluent treatment facilities, she added.

“We will also analyse feedback from industry players from this conference, and try to ensure that there would be sufficient availability of raw materials for downstream projects,” Singh said.

Some sectors of industry believe that with the anchor investors setting up their own downstream units, there would not be enough feedstock for other companies’ facilities.

The conference concluded on Tuesday.

By: Divya Chowdhury
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