Award process
Local governments ( Panchayats, Municipal Councils, district administration), government agencies, Ministries, that have an interest to develop specific beach stretches as Blue Flag Awarded beach may approach the Blue Flag India National Operator for guidelines. Hospitality industry, corporate, communities can also associate / support or co-apply with the local government to pursue a beach stretch of their interest to achieve Blue Flag standards.
An applicant may send an expression of interest to pursue Blue Flag award for a specific beach stretch to the National Operator. They shall then be guided about the future steps.
Relevant forms and materials are sent to the applicant in order to furnish preliminary information and prepare a self-assessment regarding current status of compliance to the Blue Flag award criteria, along the categories of Environment Education and Information; Water Quality; Environment Management; Safety and Access.
Based on above inputs, applicants reviews decision as to whether they would like to formally register for award process and accordingly may formally register with the National Operator to initiate award support. Once the registration form and fee is received by the National Operator; a gap analysis is initiated to identify key gaps and interventions required to fulfil Blue Flag Award compliance criteria. This also supports the applicant to identify and create appropriate management systems, interventions and investments required in their beach stretch.
National Operator presents the gap analysis report to the National Blue Flag Jury and the jury further recommends their views to FEE Blue Flag International Jury for pilot or awarded status.
The award will be subsequently renewed for every season based on compliance to the Blue Flag criteria. The National Operator undertakes control visits to the pilot or awarded beaches. Such reports are also updated to the National Jury and International Jury for renewal or pursue of Blue Flag Award status.
A Blue Flag pilot status for a beach creates opportunities for the respective coastal states and local administrative bodies to upgrade their beaches to Blue FlagAward benchmarks.
The Blue Flag Award process assists in fulfilling the objectives of the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) flagship programmes on Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) and Coastal Mission.