Twenty five more projects like industrial estate, highway, river valley projects, airport, fly ash based product management units and transport pipelines in the state will be required to pay the consent fee for their establishment and operations.
Based on the pollution potential, these industries and projects have been categorised as red (having high polluting potential), orange (having medium polluting potential) and green (having low polluting potential).
The forest and the environment department of the Orissa government had come out with a notification on 24 April 2007, categorising industries as red, orange, green and non-polluting, depending on their polluting potential. It also empowered the State Pollution Control Board (SPCB) to declare any industry as red, orange, green or non-polluting, which don’t find place in the notified list.
In line with this provision of this notification, SPCB in its recent board meeting approved a proposal to include 25 more industries in the list for collection of consent fee for establishment and operations of the new industrial units in the state.
Sources said, fly ash based product management units will be included in the list and will be categorised as ‘green’. Building and construction projects having built up area of 20,000 square metres to 1.5 lakh square metres and township and area development projects having an area of 50 hectares and built up area of 1.5 lakh square metre, have been categorised as ‘red’ units.
Similarly, river valley projects (irrigation and hydro power), nuclear power projects and processing of nuclear fuel, highway projects, airports, isolated storage and handling of hazardous chemical projects have been categorised highly polluting (red).
All transport pipelines, oil and gas pipelines, common hazardous waste treatment plant, dumping non-hazardous industrial waste outside the factory premises will be treated as most polluting or ‘red’ category. Besides, the projects like common municipal solid waste management units, port and harbour, aerial ropeway, granite polishing units, fish lending centres and fishing harbour have been categorised as ‘red.’
However, tailoring, handloom weaving, furniture, assembly of domestic electrical and electronic appliance, candles, carpentry (excluding saw mills), carpentry and manufacture of steel trunks and suit cases, will continue to be regarded as non-polluting industrial activities.
It may be noted SPCB plans to raise the consent fee for industries to establish their units in the state and operate it under the provisions of the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974 and Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981.
The board of the OSPCB will take a final decision after the committee headed by Ashok Dalwai, secretary, steel and mines, examines the matter and submits its report to the government. The decision on converting this one-time fee into an annual fee will also be taken after the committee submits its report, sources added.
