Environmental clearance for your project
Who this applies to
- Your project or activity appears in the EIA Notification 2006 Schedule. Not every industrial activity does, and the schedule is the only source that settles this, not a general impression of project size.
- If listed, your project falls into Category A, B1, or B2, determined by the schedule's own thresholds for your specific activity type. You read it off the schedule entry; it is not a judgement call.
- An expansion or modernisation of an existing unit can trigger EC even where the original unit predates the notification or was itself exempt. Check the expansion against the schedule separately.
Which category applies to you: before anything else
Environmental clearance is not a single approval from a single body. Which authority decides it, and what process applies, depends on the category your project falls into under the EIA Notification 2006 Schedule, so settle the category before anything else.
- Category A: appraised centrally by the Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC), with clearance granted by MoEFCC.
- Category B: appraised by the State Expert Appraisal Committee (SEAC), with clearance
granted by SEIAA Tamil Nadu. Category B splits further:
- B1: the EIA process, including public consultation, except where the current notification leaves public consultation out.
- B2: no EIA report or public hearing required; appraised at application level only.
Which of these applies is read off the Schedule entry for that activity, at that scale, in that location. It is not inferred from a similar project.
Schedule item 8(a) is one entry, not a rule for industrial projects. It covers building and construction projects with a built-up area of at least 20,000 sq. m and less than 1,50,000 sq. m. Built-up area means the covered area on all floors, including basements and other service areas proposed in the project. General Conditions do not apply to this item (EIA Notification 2006, Schedule item 8(a), as compiled by MoEFCC to January 2026).
S.O. 523(E), 29 January 2025, added a Note 1 to that entry which would have left out industrial sheds, schools, colleges and hostels for educational institutions. The Supreme Court set that note aside in Vanashakti v. Union of India, 2025 INSC 961, on 5 August 2025, so an industrial shed is not outside item 8(a) because of it. Item 8(a) also does not decide whether the industrial activity carried on in the shed needs clearance under a different Schedule item; that is a separate question.
Do not use that band for a manufacturing activity, a township, or any other Schedule item. Item 8(b), townships and area development, is a separate entry: at least 50 hectares and/or at least 1,50,000 sq. m built-up area, appraised as Category B1. Every other activity has its own threshold and its own A, B1, or B2 split.
Public consultation, which includes a public hearing, applies to Category A and Category B1 subject to the exceptions in paragraph 7(i) of the EIA Notification 2006, as compiled by MoEFCC. Items 8(a) and 8(b) are among those exceptions where the project contains no Category A activity, and there are others, so read the current paragraph against your project rather than assuming a hearing either way (EIA Notification 2006, para 7(i)).
What it costs to get wrong
A project or activity listed in the Schedule needs prior environmental clearance before any construction work, or any preparation of land other than securing the land, is started (EIA Notification 2006, para 2, read with the Environment (Protection) Act 1986, s.3). Starting earthwork, construction, or operations on a covered project without that clearance is the breach the Notification is written to prevent.
A later application does not stand in for the clearance that was required beforehand, and this page does not treat a clearance obtained after work has started as curing that start.
Filing under the wrong category sends the application to the wrong authority. Other permissions, including TNPCB consent for a listed activity, can also stall while clearance is outstanding. That is how the approvals are commonly sequenced in practice rather than a clause of the Notification; see pollution control consents.
The process
Determine your Schedule category
Confirm whether the activity is listed and, if it is, whether it falls in Category A, B1 or B2. That decides the authority and whether an EIA report and public consultation are required, with public consultation for Categories A and B1 subject to paragraph 7(i). Item 8(a) above is only the building and construction example; every other activity is read from its own Schedule entry.
File Form 1 through PARIVESH
You file online through the PARIVESH portal (parivesh.nic.in). Form 1 is the application, and building and construction projects under item 8 also use Form 1A. The category routes a Category A case to MoEFCC and the EAC, and a Category B case to SEIAA Tamil Nadu and the SEAC. The portal is only the administrative route: the legal requirement is still prior clearance under para 2 before construction or land preparation starts.
Category B1 and Category A: EIA report and public hearing
Category A and Category B1 projects need an Environmental Impact Assessment report and public consultation before appraisal, except where paragraph 7(i) leaves public consultation out. Category B2 projects are appraised on the application alone, but they still need clearance. A project that is excused the hearing is not excused the Notification: if the Schedule lists it, prior clearance is still required.
Appraisal and grant or refusal
The appraising committee (the EAC for Category A, the SEAC for Category B) appraises a complete application and recommends grant or refusal, and the regulatory authority then decides. Once you hold the clearance, do not plan the project's life around a remembered validity period: confirm the current provision for your activity before you treat the clearance as open-ended or about to lapse.
Common failure points
- Assuming a category from a similar project elsewhere instead of reading the Schedule entry for this activity. Scale and location can move a project between categories.
- Using the item 8(a) area band for a factory process. That row is building and construction. A manufacturing activity is tested against its own Schedule item.
- Treating B2's lighter process as "EC doesn't really apply here". B2 still requires clearance; it only skips the EIA report and the hearing.
- Starting work, then applying. Prior clearance is required before construction or land preparation, and this page does not treat a later application as a way to regularise that start.
- Missing that an expansion can trigger EC even when the original facility never needed it.
Not sure which EC category applies to your project?
Send us your project type, scale, and location. We'll tell you whether the EIA Notification 2006 Schedule lists it, and if so, which category and appraisal route applies.