Effectiveness of EIA in the decision-making process of infrastructure projects in India

Abstract

This paper looks at the decisional effectiveness of EIAs with reference to infrastructure projects in India. The study proposes four hypotheses the essence of them being that decisional effectiveness of EIAs in India is hampered by a number of factors. These include a weak and ineffective Legislative, Judicial and Regulatory framework along with ineffective participation on the part of the various players in the EIA process. The study uses seven infrastructure projects to draw evidence and inferences from. It then uses a framework to prove that the hypotheses should not be rejected. The study des not claim that the seven infrastructure projects can be considered to be representative of all the infrastructure projects that have been implemented, in terms of the decision-making and the EIA process, but simply draws attention to the loopholes and flaws in the various frameworks that are in place and result in the decisional ineffectiveness of EIAs in India. Finally based on the inferences developed through the course of the study, the study makes a number of recommendations that need to be put in place and also the imperativeness of ensuring that EIAs and their decisional making enablement result in sustainable development rather than a conflict between sustainability and development.