New Delhi : The National Hydroelectric Power Corporation's 3,000-MW Dibang project in Arunachal Pradesh will soon be taken up for faster clearance by the Prime Minister-headed Cabinet Committee on Investment. The R16,000-crore project, billed as the country's largest hydropower project till date, has been stuck for over six years due the slow progress in environment clearance. Sources said the power ministry has referred the project to the CCI as it was not happy with the progress on the project getting environmental nod. It is expected that the CCI push would enable this project to get off the ground soon. The high-powered committee is expected to meet on October 30. But the going would not be easy even in CCI as the Forest Advisory Committee (in the environment ministry) denied clearance to the project in July citing large-scale damages to the ecology. The storage-based hydro project will require felling of over 3 lakh trees. NHPC's two other projects – Kotlibhel in Uttarakhand and Pakaldul in J&K – are still far from being awarded despite the CCI clearing them in April. Another NHPC project in Arunachal – Subansiri Lower – is still awaiting clearance despite the company having made over R6,500 crore investment. The delays have escalated the cost of the project by over R1,000 crore. The project, which was expected to be commissioned in September 2010, has been stalled due to protests by local residents. In case of Dibang, the NHPC has said that it would immensely add to the infrastructural and socio-economical development of the Northeast and also act as barrier to prevent large-scale flooding in the region. The foundation stone for the 3,000-MW project was laid in January 2008 by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who will now decide on how to take it forward. The government has placed high hopes on the CCI to take the economy out of the current gloomy phase by propelling investments by removing bottlenecks in large infrastructure projects. In its meetings over the last few months, it has approved projects in the oil and gas, power, coal, port and airport sectors. Not only projects have been cleared but also policies have been tweaked to allow faster implementation of projects and ease of investments.