The Union Ministry of Environment and Forests has constituted the State Level Environment Impact Assessment Authority for Tamil Nadu. The State Government has nominated three members to the authority to function as chairman, member secretary and member. The retired IAS officer, C. Thangaraju, will be the chairman, and the Director of Environment, Tamil Nadu, will be the member secretary. A fourteen-member State Level Expert Appraisal committee has also been constituted. The appraisal committee will make recommendations on projects that seek clearance. The members will have a three-year tenure. In 2006, the Ministry of Environment and Forests replaced the earlier environment impact norms, paving the way for State-level authorities. As per the new norms, projects that need clearance are categorised separately. The SEIAA will clear projects such as cement plants that have production capacity of less than 1.0 million tonnes a year and harbours with less than 5 million tonnes of cargo handling capacity and those with greater than or equal to 10,000 tonnes of fish handling capacity.