Imagine you want to build an apartment block to house 100 families. You have land, money, an architect, even buyers. What you do not have is permission to build. A year or two later, you get clearance. But, by then, your debt has racked up interest, timelines have collapsed, and the project meant to house 100 units has been redesigned to deal with regulatory challenges. Or, worse, is shelved.
This is what India's regulatory system does to construction projects through mechanisms like environmental clearance (EC). And the tragedy is that it doesn't even achieve the protection it was meant to provide.
