The State Council has issued amended regulations on the administration of environmental protection related to construction projects. The decision on the amendment was approved at the State Council executive meeting on June 21.

The new regulations deleted several articles, combined related items, added new provisions and revised the content of some clauses.

The revised regulations require construction enterprises to submit environmental impact reports, and government departments of environmental protection should evaluate the reports using technology tools and take on any costs.

For any changes on nature, scale, location and manufacturing process of construction projects or measures used for preventing pollution and ecological damage, the construction enterprises should re-submit the reports.

If construction begins five years or later from the approval date, government departments should re-check the evaluation reports, and no extra charges should be levied for the approval, according to the new regulations.

Environmental protection facilities that are built with the construction projects should be inspected, too, which cannot be put into use before getting approvals, a new article regulated. It also urged the construction enterprises to make public the inspection reports, except those that are required to be kept confidential by national regulations.

The new regulations will take effect from Oct 1.