State likely to get Rs 11,000 crore funding

The Gujarat government is likely to receive Rs 11,000 crore from the Centre over the next five years for development of infrastructure related to environment protection and safety.

"The investment is expected to come from the Centre as a grant-in-aid with the recommendations of the 12th Finance Commission. We have requested the visiting members and chairman C Rangarajan of the Finance Commission to allocate this much of fund to the state. This amount is necessary for promoting the investment climate in the state and to enable the state to achieve the growth rate of 10.2 per cent, as targeted by the Planning Commission," Mangu Patel, minister for environment and forests, said on Thursday.

Sailesh Patwari, member of the Confederation of Indian Industry's (CII) Environment Committee, said, "The industries of the state had proposed to the state government to set up combined waste water projects entirely with government's financial participation. Any import of the pollution abatement equipment must be free of customs and excise duty. There should be an exemption on excise duty for the sale and purchase of pollution abatement equipment within the country."

Patwari said the state industries demanded disbursement of subsidies and loans and advances by Sidbi or by any designated bank at a notional rate of interest.

The Union and the state governments should financially support environmental projects coming up on a cluster base as this will help the small scale industries compete with MNCs and withstand competition from China, Patwari said.

With the emerging environmental issues, the state had put together institutional and infrastructural systems and procedures to effectively tackle the adverse effects of industrialisation.

The accelerated industrialisation was the initial goal but with the growing awareness of environmental protection, the state had shifted its development paradigm to fall in line with the tenets of sustainable development.

"The state needs to go for new initiatives in order to enhance the quality of investment climate in the state so that the growth process becomes sustainable. It is important to take up the development of quality infrastructure for pollution control and environmental protection, so that the mistakes committed during the initial phase of industrial development is not repeated," said a senior industry member.

The infrastructure facilities in the state and the steps taken by the industries to abate pollution and achieve sustainable development have helped in setting up more than 4,357 effluent treatment plants, sources said.

More than 3,000 specialised air pollution control measures are in operation in the state. As many as 18,000 polluting units in the state have been disciplined under the pollution control law.

The state government and industries have jointly created infrastructure such as effluent conveyance system, which includes the Dahej pipeline project in Bharuch, covering 56 kms with an investment of Rs 170 crore, and Ankleshwar-Jhagadia pipeline in 56 kms with an investment of Rs 126 crore, sources said.

The effluent channel project in Vadodara, covering 62 kms is set up with an investment of Rs 11 crore and the mega pipeline project in Ahmedabad of 28 kms with an investment of Rs 32 crore, the sources said.