Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
A Parliamentary committee has recommended sweeping regulatory reforms for uranium mining, including time-bound single-window clearances and provisions for contiguous lease extensions to compress project timelines and ensure a reliable fuel supply for India’s Pressurised Heavy Water Reactor (PHWR) fleet.
The recommendations are part of the panel’s report on regulatory enablement for strategic minerals. The government has submitted interim replies, while its final response is still awaited.
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The committee noted that newly identified or deeper ore bodies sometimes extend beyond existing lease boundaries.
However, current provisions under the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act (MMDR) do not permit seamless lease-area extensions, forcing fresh leases and separate regulatory clearances.
It said this affects the techno-economic viability of projects, particularly for deposits located at depths beyond 600 metres, such as those at Narwapahar.
The panel also observed that the Uranium Corporation of India Ltd (UCIL) must obtain approvals from multiple agencies, including the Ministries of Environment and Forests, the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB), the Directorate General of Mines Safety (DGMS), the Pollution Control Board, as well as secure land and water permissions.
In addition, projects face social licence requirements and site-specific challenges such as tailings disposal and water availability.
“These multi-agency approval pathways can extend project timelines, with possible implications for fuel supply planning for PHWR reactors,” the committee said.
To address these issues, the panel recommended amending relevant provisions of the MMDR Act and associated rules to allow contiguous lease extensions for strategic minerals such as uranium when ore bodies extend beyond existing boundaries, subject to stringent safety and environmental safeguards.
It also recommended operationalising a single-window clearance mechanism with statutory timelines for uranium mining and milling projects by integrating Central and State approvals and enabling parallel processing of permissions.
Further, the Committee proposed a State-level framework covering land acquisition, project-affected persons (PAP) rehabilitation and resettlement (R&R), assured industrial water supply, and off-site emergency planning.
It also suggested creating a coordination platform chaired by the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) to resolve inter-ministerial bottlenecks within defined service-level agreements.
According to the panel, these reforms would significantly compress the “permit-to-production” cycle and improve UCIL’s reliability in supplying uranium to the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL).
The Ministry has submitted interim replies to the Committee’s recommendations.
However, final action on amending MMDR provisions, establishing the single-window clearance mechanism, and creating the DAE-led coordination platform is still awaited.
With India expanding its nuclear power capacity, the Committee stressed that greater regulatory predictability is essential to de-risk uranium production and ensure the long-term fuel requirements of the country’s domestic nuclear reactor programme are met.
– Ends
SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
