New Delhi, July 31 - The government Friday introduced the National Green Tribunal Bill in the Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh said here.

The autonomous tribunal is meant to take over from the ministry in maters of environmental clearance of development projects.

Ramesh said the bill was now being sent to the parliament's standing committee for the ministry, and was expected to be passed by the end of November.

The ministry's own clearance committee is now without a chairman after the last incumbent resigned under a cloud. As a result, environmental clearances are likely to be held up till the tribunal starts work.