COME September and one of the most critically polluted areas in the country, Ankleshwar industrial estate in South Gujarat would become greener with improved compliance to norms set by the country's pollution regulator.
Going by the claims made by the industrial body, Ankleshwar Industries Association (AIA) pollution levels in the region would be brought under permissible limits.
"We are making all efforts to fulfill requirements of the Action Plan and bring down the pollution levels within desired limits. So far we have achieved almost 90 per cent of the compliance part and by September 2011, we should be able to come out from our status of a critically polluted area," said Vipul Gajera, president, AIA.
The Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) had identified six critically polluted industrial clusters in the state, which included Bhavnagar and Junagadh in Saurashtra, Vapi and Ankleshwar in South Gujarat and Ahmedabad and Vatva in Central Gujarat. The ministry had imposed a moratorium on these clusters for their critically polluting nature and banned expansion in these regions.
However, earlier this year in March, the MoEF had lifted the moratorium imposed on three of these clusters including Bhavnagar, Junagadh and Vapi. But the ban continued to be in force for the rest of the clusters including the Ankleshwar Industrial estate.
So far, the industry has already appointed National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), Nagpur to evaluate the compliance part by the units. The carbon oxygen demand (COD) levels are being brought down significantly from the earlier 500 COD to the permissible limit of 250 COD. The industry participants informed that while COD levels are being brought down, the units are also asked to reduce the level of ammoniacal nitrogen, which is a toxic pollutant in their effluents.
The association has invested about Rs 2 crore towards upgradation of Central Effluent Treatment Plant also the individual units too have invested in the range of Rs 15 lakh to Rs 10-12 crore to meet the green norms set by the pollution regulator, Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). "At times, our CETPs get effluents with very high CODs, called as refractory CODs, which are very difficult to treat at the CETP. The industry itself has to decide about such effluents because they cannot be treated at the CETPs. The estate is one of the best equipped with the infrastructure facilities hence a combined effort to meet the set pollution norms would help us come out of the critically polluted status by September 2011," said Capt A G Chitre, coordinator at the AIA.
Ankleshwar industrial estate, is considered to be the largest industrial cluster in India with about 2,000 units operational with their annual turnover exceeding Rs 10,000 crore. "The industrial estate alone generates excise duty worth Rs 1000 crore for the state treasury. Most of the units here are chemical and allied units and some are engineering units. The most polluting units were smaller chemical units, which did not adhere to the set norms for short term convenience. But now the association has become strict on them and asked them to meet the prescribed norms for pollutants," informed Gajera.
Located at the southern part of the state, Ankleshwar industrial estate generates employment for about 200,000 people of which 80 per cent are locals while remaining come from outside state.
