16 January 2010
Special Correspondent
The Hindu
The Centre has imposed temporary restrictions on new development projects in industrial clusters that score more than 70 points on the Comprehensive Environmental Pollution Index (CEPI) issued by the Ministry of Environment and Forests recently.
The restrictions on projects from critically polluted industrial clusters will be applicable for eight months during which time the Central Pollution Control Board along with the respective State Pollution Control Boards will finalise a time-bound action plan for improving the environmental quality of these areas.
The situation will be reviewed subsequently and further instructions issued accordingly.
According to a notification by the Ministry of Environment and Forests, projects from industrial clusters with CEPI score above 70 received for grant of environmental clearance will be returned to the project proponents.
The most affected industrial areas, as a result of this notification, would be Ankleswar, Vapi, Ghaziabad, Chandrapur, Korba, Bhiwadi, Angul Talcher, Vellore, Singrauli, Ludhiana, Najafgarh drain and surrounding areas in Delhi, Noida, Dhanbabd, Kanpur, Cuddalore, Agra, Haldia, Ahmedabad, Navi Mumbai, Mangalore, Coimbatore, Visakhapatnam, and Patancheru-Bollaram.