India, July 17 -- The Union environment Ministry has notified the constitution of two new interim state-level bodies, which will automatically take charge and issue environmental clearances (EC) for projects whenever the tenure of the existing State Environment Impact Assessment Authorities (SEIAA) and State Expert Appraisal Committees (SEAC) expire. In a notification, the Ministry said the two new bodies created - the Standing Authority on Environment Impact Assessment (SAEIA) and the Standing Committee on Environment Impact Appraisal (SCEIA) were needed, as the process of re-notifying the state-level bodies would lead to a backlog of projects, thus delaying clearances.

"The tenure of SEIAA and SEAC is three years, extendable by one yea...