The Ministry of Home Affairs has issued a standard operating procedure requiring renewable energy projects within 50 kilometers of India's international border to secure security clearance from the Home and Defence Ministries, with projects within 1 kilometer barred outright. Applications must now route through the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, which forwards the state government's land allotment details to MHA and Defence for clearance.
What this changes for a title check
This is a new gating step in the land title chain for any solar or wind project sited near a border, most relevant for developments in Gujarat's Kutch region and other border districts of Rajasthan and the northeast. A lender or developer checking title on such a project should now look for two things beyond the usual state land allotment order: first a security clearance letter from the Ministry of Home Affairs or a prior Defence Ministry no objection certificate, and second confirmation that the application was routed through MNRE rather than filed directly with MHA or Defence, since the SOP bars developers from approaching either ministry on their own. Projects between 1 and 20 kilometers of the border face an outright MHA review while those between 20 and 50 kilometers get case by case scrutiny, so the required clearance level depends on exact distance from the border, which should be verified against survey coordinates rather than assumed from the project address. Projects that already hold MHA or Defence clearance before this SOP are grandfathered and do not need to reapply.