The Parliamentary Committee for Public Undertakings has called for amendments to the Forest Rights Act, saying that key national hydropower projects remain stalled on account of the nine-year average time window being taken for forest land clearance under the law.Excruciating delays in the grant of village panchayat consent for forest land continue to delay major projects inordinately, pushing timelines and compromising clean energy goals.The committee has raised the alarm on the evidence that the average time taken for forest clearance in under-construction projects of the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) has been approximately 106 months. This translates into nine years.“The requirement of 100 per cent gram sabha consent under the Forest Rights Act, 2006, for stage-II forest clearance has emerged as the single-most critical bottleneck, with projects such as 520 MW Teesta-IV HEP in North Sikkim indefinitely stalled because consent from a small minority of gram panchayats remains pending,” the committee said, recommending a change of 100 per cent consent requirement to a reasonable super majority of 70 per cent.The NHPC is uniquely positioned to lead India’s clean energy transition of exploitable hydropower potential of approximately 1,33,000 MW, but only about 44,000 MW (barely one-third) has been developed so far, government data shows.The NHPC told the committee that the 100 per cent consent requirement was practically unachievable in many cases and that a 70 per cent super-majority threshold should suffice.“The NHPC furnished international benchmarking from Brazil (FUNAI), Australia (Native Title Act, 1993) and New Zealand (Treaty of Waitangi) in support of a rationalised consent threshold, and recommended that FRA processes be initiated at the pre-feasibility stage,” the panel said.The Ministry of Power acknowledged the challenge and noted that the Government of Arunachal Pradesh had been actively supportive in resolving clearance delays.