Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC)
Also known as: EAC EIA India · Expert Appraisal Committee MoEFCC
The Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) is a central-government expert panel that reviews EIA reports for large Category A projects and recommends Environmental Clearance conditions to MoEFCC.
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What is Expert Appraisal Committee?
The Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) is a central-government expert advisory body constituted by MoEFCC under the EIA Notification, 2006, to review EIA reports for all Category A projects and recommend Environmental Clearance conditions to the central ministry. The EAC is the single most consequential technical gateway for large industrial, infrastructure, mining, and waste-management projects in India.
Composition and structure: MoEFCC constitutes separate EACs for different project sectors — there is an EAC for Industry-1 (mining), Industry-2 (mineral processing, metallurgy), Industry-3 (chemicals, petrochemicals, pesticides), Thermal Power and Coal Mine Projects, Building/Construction/Township and Area Development, River Valley and Hydroelectric, Infrastructure-1 (highways, ports, airports), Infrastructure-2 (cement, refineries), Nuclear Projects, and others. Each EAC has a chairperson plus 15 members drawn from disciplines spanning environmental science, ecology, hydrology, geology, occupational health, social science, and project-specific engineering. Terms are typically three years, extendable once.
What the EAC actually does: The EAC meets monthly in New Delhi (or via video conference). Each project on the agenda gets a presentation by the proponent and its consultant, scrutiny by individual members on specific aspects (a hydrologist will focus on water-balance numbers, an air-quality scientist on dispersion modelling), and an opportunity for the EAC to seek clarifications or additional studies. The committee then issues a recommendation: grant EC with specified conditions, defer for additional studies, or recommend rejection. The minutes of EAC meetings are published on the MoEFCC website typically within four weeks of the meeting.
Why the EAC matters for recyclers: Large recycling and hazardous-waste projects — integrated tyre-recycling complexes above Category A thresholds, lithium-ion battery refining at industrial scale, multi-state TSDFs — go through the EAC for Industry-2 or Industry-3 depending on dominant process. Practical guidance: review previous EAC minutes in the relevant sector before the appraisal meeting; the same EAC tends to ask consistent questions across similar projects (water balance, hazardous-waste channelisation, dioxin emissions controls for any combustion process), so anticipating these in the EIA presentation materially raises clearance probability and reduces deferral cycles that each add 2-4 months to project timelines.
Common questions about Expert Appraisal Committee
Plain-English answers to what people most often ask.
What is the full form of EAC in environmental clearance?
What is the difference between EAC and SEAC?
Are EAC decisions public?
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