After a long wait, Baddi industrial area to get effluent treatment plant

Ambika Sharma

Tribune News Service

Solan, March 14

The state’s first Common Effluent Treatment Plant (CETP), which will facilitate scientific disposal of hazardous waste, will be commissioned by month-end in the state’s industrial hub of Baddi.

The government has leased out 96.17 bigha land for this Rs 60-crore Centrally-aided project at Kenduwala which is being executed by Gujarat-based United Phosphorus Limited.

The project is designed for 25 years and it was initially supposed to be completed by June 2014. The plant has been approved under the Centre’s Industrial Infrastructure (cluster) upgrade scheme (IIUS) and its primary objective is to enhance international competitiveness of the domestic industry by providing quality infrastructure through public-private partnership in select functional industrial clusters which have great potential to become globally competitive.

With the Comprehensive Environment Pollution Index of the Baddi area being 70, thus stressing the need for effective check of water pollution, the commissioning of this plant will help curb erring industries dumping their untreated toxic effluents into the water bodies.

The presence of abysmally low level of dissolved oxygen in the water bodies of Baddi had become a cause of concern for environmentalists and even the courts have been directing the state government to ensure setting up of this CETP at the earliest.

While ensuring scientific treatment of hazardous waste from various industrial units such as textile, paper, pharmaceutical, food-based, etc., the plant has a capacity to treat as much as 25 million litres per day (MLD).

Plant’s Chief Executive Officer Keshav Chandel said civil works, laying of pipeline, power connectivity, etc., were almost complete and treatment of waste from food-based industries had also begun. He said in the first phase hazardous waste from textile and food-based industries would be initiated and later other sectors such as paper, detergents, etc., would be included.

Each unit would be liable to pay Rs 31 per kilo litre charges for waste treatment and the final cost would be worked out on the basis of the type of waste.

The plant would cover various industrial units in Baddi and Barotiwala and at least 75 per cent of the waste would be supplied through the pipelines while tankers would be required to transport the remaining waste from industries concerned.