Plans are afoot from the Ministry of Railways to expedite 40 crucial projects across the country, which are facing forest clearance hurdles from the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF). Around 11 national projects and 14 strategic projects in the bordering states of Jammu and Kashmir, Northeast, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan and Punjab have been stuck for forest and wildlife clearance from the MoEF, and some are stuck due to a financial crunch. Also, some key projects for the transportation of coal from mining sites in Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh are pending due to lack of green clearance. All these projects are awaiting clearance from MoEF for over eight to ten years. For instance, the 51.83 km long Bhairabi-Sairang rail project in Mizoram, which was sanctioned in 2008-09 at a cost of Rs 2,393.48 crore, is still awaiting forest clearance. Similarly, Sivok-Rangpo rail line in Sikkim, which was also sanctioned in 2008-09 at a cost of Rs 3,375.42 crore is stuck for lack of environment clearances. Tori-Shivpur -Kathautia (53 km) railway line in North Karanpura, in Jharkhand — a key project for coal evacuation, is also facing delay. The Railways is collating the list of pending projects and will submit the same to the Project Monitoring Group (PMG) to expedite clearances.
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