These manuals are aimed at expert appraisal committees, and hope to improve the quality of appraisal of projects. These will also provide a template for use by organisations and consultants developing the EIA reports.
The Environmental Impact Assessment Notification 2006 notified 39 developmental sectors that require prior environmental clearance. It also recommended bringing out guidelines from time to time on the clearance process. Accordingly,the Ministry of Environment & Forests engaged two consultants namely;Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI), Hyderabad and IL&FS Ecosmart Limited to prepare 37 sector specific Manuals for the various sectors/activities listed in the EIA Notification 2006 – of which Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI), Hyderabad prepared 10 manuals and IL&FS Ecosmart Limited prepared 27 manuals.
A list of the EIA manuals are presented below. In addition, the manuals are also attached below. Please note that all these manuals are not available on the Internet. The ones that have NOT been attached are listed below in italics.
The sector specific EIA Manuals prepared by ASCI and currently available on the internet are as follows:
- Mining
- Mineral beneficiation
- Airports
- Asbestos
- Ports & harbours
- Building construction and townships
- Highways
- Coal washery
- Aerial ropeways
- Nuclear power
The sector specific EIA Manuals prepared by IL&FS and currently available on the internet are as follows:
- Thermal power
- Cement
- Chemical fertilizers
- Sugar
- Distilleries
- Leather/skin/hide processing industry
- Pulp & paper
- Offshore and on-shore oil & gas exploration, development & production
- Induction/arc and cupola furnaces
- Chlor alkali industry
- Synthetic organic industry
- Man-made fibre
- Common effluent treatment plants (cetps)
- Industrial estates
- Ship breaking yards
- Common hazardous waste disposal, storage and treatment facilities
The IL&FS manuals not available on the internet are as follows:
- Metallurgical industries
- Oil & gas transportation pipe-line
- Oil refineries
- Petrochemical plants
- Pesticides and pesticide intermediates
- Petrol-chemical based production
- Coke oven plants
- Soda ash
- Integrated paints
- Isolated storages and handling of hazardous chemicals
- Common municipal solid wastes
The Ministry states that creation of these manuals needs to be an iterative process, considering changing technologies and needs. It invites comments and suggestions from all stakeholders- Governmental and non-governmental project proponents, consultants involved in the environmental clearance (EC) process and experts from academia and concerned sectoral institutions, industry associations, non-governmental organisations and the local communities for inclusion in the next editions.
Download 26 manuals below: