How long NSW major project approvals take

From a case's first record on the NSW Major Projects portal to its determination, for State significant development and infrastructure that entered the portal from August 2020, as at 22 October 2026. Half of all cases were decided within 28 months.

By type of project

Projects	A quarter decided within	Half within	Three quarters within	Decided	Still open
All NSW projects	16 months	28 months	44 months	320	337
Generation and storage	29 months	Not yet known	Not yet known	33	60
Transport	16 months	27 months	44 months	41	27
Social infrastructure	14 months	18 months	25 months	62	15
Property	15 months	24 months	33 months	134	186

Types with fewer than 25 decided cases are counted in the first row only. “Not yet known” means too many cases of that type are still open for the figure to be stated.

How it is worked out

Start and end: The start is the case's first record on the portal, usually its request for assessment requirements, since the portal publishes no lodgement date. The end is the determination. So each time covers the whole approval journey, including the time a proponent spends preparing its EIS.
Which cases: State significant development and infrastructure applications, not modifications, that entered the portal from 1 August 2020. Earlier portal dates are the dates records were moved into it, often after the decision. Cases still preparing an EIS are left out, as many never proceed, and so are withdrawn cases.
Cases still open: A case still being assessed is counted as having taken at least as long as it has so far (a Kaplan-Meier survival estimate). Leaving open cases out would make approvals look faster than they are, because the slowest cases are the ones still open.
On a project page: A project still in assessment is compared with cases of its type that had already waited as long, and the middle half of their decision dates is shown. It is a benchmark from past cases, not a forecast for that project.
Source: NSW Major Projects portal, CC BY 4.0, refreshed daily.