Industrial expansion in and around Ankleshwar has come to a standstill because the local effluent treatment body has not upgraded its capacity, industrial units in Ankleshwar complained to Chief Minister Vijay Rupani recently. Investments worth Rs15,000 crore to expand capacities are lying in waste because of bottlenecks in the treatment of industrial effluents, they said. Ankleshwar is one of the industrial estates in Gujarat, classified as critically polluted by central Ministry of Environment and Forest in 2009, which put a cap on all fresh investments. The cap was removed two years ago but local industries say neither the existing units are able to expand nor new units able to invest. "93 companies had taken Environment Clearance (EC) and No Objection Certificate (NOC) between 2007 and 2009. Investments close to Rs15,000 crore was already being made. However, the capacity to treat effluents did not rise correspondingly, limiting the rise in production," Mahesh Patel, president of Ankleshwar Industries Association (AIA) said. Narmada Clean Tech, a body under Gujarat Industries Development Corporation (GIDC) is operating the effluent treatment plant (Final Effluent Treatment Plant – FETP) for units in Ankleshwar and nearby Panoli region. The FETP has an installed capacity of treating 60 Million Litres Per Day (MLD) of effluents, against which industries are permitted to discharge only 25 MLD. AIA urged the CM to allow them to discharge additional 35 MLD. However, industries are alternatively told to treat effluents through Multistage Effective Evaporator (MEE), which hey say is multiple times costly and releases carbon emissions as it works on coal or natural gas. "While FETP treatment will cost about Rs100 per kilolitre of effluent, MEE costs Rs3,000-5,000. Only large units can afford MEE. Small units cannot. With no alternative, they are forced to use it if they want to increase production. But then the product is not competitive compared to Chinese products," said Patel. Harish Patel, another leading industrialist in Ankleshwar, told DNA that short-sightedness of authorities has brought fresh investments to a virtual standstill, which is hurting both the industries as well as government in terms of revenue loss. In a letter submitted to the state government, AIA said that even Gujarat High Court has come down heavily on NCT. AIA urged the government that if NCT is unable to discharge its duties, local industries are ready to take over the management. "Often there are complains that NCT is releasing polluted effluents in water bodies and the drainage infrastructure is not capable to handle the effluents. If the NCT is unable to manage ETPs, it should hand over the management to the industry," said the letter. AIA urged the government that instead of taking a costly route, which is also harmful to the environment, it should immediately grant consent to use the unutilized 35 MLD capacity of the FETP, which will not only benefit about 1,000 units in Ankleshwar and Panoli but another 1,000 smaller units in the vicinity. MAJOR HURDLE

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