EIA Guidelines  for Project Proponents
  
The MoEF has prepared Environmental Guidelines, to help the project proponents to work out an EIA. Guidelines have been prepared to bring out specific information on the environment required for environmental clearance. The agencies, which are primarily responsible for the respective sectors are closely involved in preparing the guidelines. River valley projects, thermal power projects, mining projects and industries, ports and harbours, development of beaches, highway/ railroad projects are the sectors for which guidelines have already been prepared. These guidelines basically consist of aspects regarding planning and implementation of development projects. The majority of projects in India, which require EIA's, are large developmental projects like nuclear power, river valley, thermal power plants etc, where government plays an important role.

MoEF has developed guidelines for the preparation of EIA reports along with questionnaires and check lists for the following sectors. In addition the MOEF has delineated several siting criteria.

S.No	EIA Sector	Resources (Questionnaires)
1	Industry and Mining Projects	Industry Questionnaire      Mining Questionnaire
2	Thermal Power Projects	Thermal Projects Questionnaire
3	River Valley Projects	River Valley Questionnaire
4	New Railways Projects
5	Road and Higways Projects	Highways Projects Questionnaire
6	Ports and Harbours
7	Airports
8	Communication Projects
9	New Towns

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Additional Resources
  
Siting Criteria Delineated by MOEF - SC_MoEF.pdf (10.5 KB)
Checklist for Ecological Impact Assessment - EIA_Chklst.pdf (10.5 KB)

The critical issues focused in all these guidelines are:

1. Can the local environment cope with the additional waste and pollution that the project will produce?

2. Will the project location conflict with the nearby land use or preclude later developments in surrounding areas?

3. Can the project operate safely without serious risk of accidents or long- term health hazards?

4. How will the project affect economic activities that are based on natural resources?

5. Is there sufficient infrastructure to support the project?

6. How much of the resources (such as water, energy etc) will the project consume, and are adequate supplies of these resources available?

7. What kind of human resources will it require or replace and what will be its social impacts in the short/long-run?

8. What damages will it inadvertently cause to the national/regional assets such as natural resources, tourist areas, or historic or cultural sites, etc? (UNEP 1988).

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