SHWETA KAMAT
shweta@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: Construction and township projects will be saved from obtaining the ‘consent to establish’ from the State Pollution Control Board as the environment clearance (EC) granted by the Union Ministry for Environment and Forest (MoEF) and the State Level Environment Impact Assessment Authority (EIA) would suffice.
In a communication to all State Pollution Control Boards (SPCB), including Goa, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has stated that there is no need to obtain Consent to Establish under the Water (prevention and control of pollution) Act, 1974 and Air (prevention and control of pollution) Act 1981 for projects that are mentioned in the serial No 8 (a) and (b) of Schedule of Projects in EIA notification, 2006.
“There should not be any need to obtain consent to establish for building, construction projects, area development projects and township projects. For such projects, EC shall suffice subject to the condition that there should be permanent number of SPCB in the state level EIA authority to represent the views of SPCB,” the letter by CPCB member secretary A B Akolkar reads.
“Further, all the projects requiring environmental clearance either from State level EIA or MoEF may be exempted from obtaining the consent to establish. Such projects may be directly granted consent to operate subject to EC, and installation of pollution control devices,” he stated further.
The building and construction projects include those which are built in an area more than 20,000 sq mtrs and less than 1.50 lakh sq mtrs. In case of a township the area will be more than 50 ha or built up area of more than 1.50 lakh sq mtrs.
As per the provisions of Water Act and Air Act, prior consent of the State Pollution Control Board (SPCB) is required for establishment of any industry and application in a prescribed format is required to be submitted before the board. As per earlier procedure, the ‘consent to establish’ is required before commencement of construction activities on the site and the ‘consent to operate’ is needed before commencement of production activities.
When contacted, a GSPCB official confirmed the details of the communication and stated that the new guidelines will apply to only those projects that are mentioned in serial 8 (a) and (b) of the EIA notification and not all projects.
