The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : Travancore Titanium to expedite pollution control project

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Apr 26, 2006

Kerala

Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Travancore Titanium to expedite pollution control project

N.J. Nair

Supreme Court Monitoring Committee may stick to the April 26 deadline

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM : With the deadline set by the Supreme Court Monitoring Committee (SCMC) on hazardous wastes for setting up an effluent treatment plant at the Travancore Titanium Products (TTP) expiring on Wednesday, the management has expedited steps to complete the project at the earliest.

The company's move follows a decision of the SCMC to stick to the April 26 deadline, as directed by it earlier, for establishing the plant.

Sensing the problems that are likely to arise out of the SCMC stand, the company management had moved the High Court seeking permission to finalise the tender for awarding the work and completing the project as expeditiously as possible. The bench comprising K.S. Radhakrishnan and K.T. Sankaran issued an order on February I last permitting the management to go ahead with the project. It also said the Kerala State Pollution Control Board (PCB) should not take any coercive steps against the company without obtaining the orders of the court.

This order has come as a breather and the company has decided to expedite the project, managing director Eapen Joseph told The Hindu on Tuesday.

Once the SCMC tightened its grip on the company for failing to honour the deadline, it had become clear that the management would have to take some remedial steps to avert the closure.

The monitoring committee's decision came at a time when the management was going ahead with the project on the treatment plant and another one on capacity enhancement at an estimated cost of Rs.250 crores.

It may be recalled that one of the committee members S. Devotta, who is also the director of the National Environmental Engineering and Research Institute (NEERI), had inspected the company and recommended installation of the treatment plant. Mr. Devotta said the capacity enchancement project should not be linked with the treatment plant.

The committee members then inspected the company on May 12, 2005, and felt that the management had not given due importance to its recommendation and insisted that the company should function only with a valid consent order and also furnish a bank guarantee of Rs.5 crores to the PCB for installing the treatment plant by April 26. It was also stated that the company would have to forfeit the bank guarantee if it failed to honour the deadline.

The monitoring committee, later, said the management disregarded Mr. Devotta's recommendation that the pollution control plant should not be linked with the capacity enhancement project as clearance of the Union Environment and Forest Ministry was imperative for the latter. Without installing the pollution abatement plant, the Union Environment Ministry would not be able to clear the capacity enhancement project.

The monitoring committee had also expressed doubts about the manner in which the PCB had given clearance for the expansion project in the absence of an effluent treatment plant.

The committee is learnt to have recommended that the bank guarantee of Rs.5 crores should be forfeited and the consent to operate the plant should not be extended beyond the April 26 deadline.

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