Ambernath, June 21 (KNN) The future of almost 900 units’ employing 50,000 workers in Maharashtra’s Ambernath district is in trouble following a notice from the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) due to build-up of tonnes of toxic sludge over a decade. However, according to the industries here the build-up is due to non-functioning of the Common Effluent Treatment Plant (CETP) ever since it was installed.

Maharashtra government, which hosted the Make in India week to boost investment in the state, had set up the Additional Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) in Ambernath, a place near Mumbai, back in 2002.

It had also set up a state-of-the-art Common Effluent Treatment Plant (CETP) to tackle the hazardous industrial waste from the factories.

But the ground reality is that it’s been more than a decade now since the industrial waste in the region has been treated properly due to which it has built-up a huge pile of toxic sludge.

Ironically, the consequences have to be borne by the MSME units in the area after the state pollution board slapped a notice on the authorities, threatening to shut down the CETP if the waste is not dealt with immediately.

Talking to KNN, the Chairman of Additional Ambernath Manufacturers Association (AAMA) Umesh Tayade said that entire Park will shut down if CETP will not work.

“Around 50,000 workers are working in the industrial park out of which 15,000 workers are working in the area where CETP dependent industries are operating,” he said.

Elaborating on the issues, Tayade said, “Chemical industries started to come here in 2002. These industries are supposed to treat their effluent and send it to the CETP.”

However, the CETP never worked efficiently due to which the industrial wastes remained untreated.

He said that due to huge pile-up of industrial waste, the authorities stopped giving permission to any new industries bringing the growth of the region to a complete halt.

Tayade pointed that the state would lose out on a whopping Rs 15,000 crore of GDP, and the Centre would lose even more – Rs 50,000 crore of national GDP if the MSMEs here shut down.

AAMA said that of the 900 units in the MIDC, 87 are chemical industries that are totally dependent upon the CETP to process the hazardous waste. The remaining units are ancillary industries which are totally dependent on the chemical units.

Closure of chemical units would also throw the ancillary units out of business.

Explaining how the problem escalated so much, Tayade said, “The CETP which was ready in 2002 began its operation only in 2012 after the MIDC handed it over to Bharat Udyog Limited for 20 years on Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) basis.”

Company’s subsidiary –M/s Ambernath MIDC CETP Co Pvt Ltd handled the working of CETP. “Due to their inability to operate the CETP properly the problem arised,” he said. (KNN/ AR)