The Central Pollution Control Board (“CPCB”) has revised the categories of industries/organizations/activities under the consent mechanism to obtain Consent to Establish (“CTE”) and Consent to Operate (“CTO”). A new Blue category has been introduced to distinguish the Essential Environmental Services required for management of environmental concerns arising from anthropogenic pollution. The classification aims to enhance environmental management and regulatory oversight by classifying sectors into red, orange, green, white, and blue categories.

Key Highlights:

1. The classification methodology focusses on potential to pollute the environment by the sector.
2. Simplification of single formula for Cumulative Pollution Index for all cases.
3. Introduced Blue Category for 9 sectors under Essential Environmental Services required for management of waste generated from domestic/household activities.
4. For Blue Category sector, as an incentive for the essential services, additional 2 years validity for consent to operate (as per PI) will be provided.
5. Separate scoring criteria for sectors generating sewage (such as Building & construction projects, STPs, Airports, etc.) and bio-medical waste (Health Care Facilities).
6. New classification will be applicable to existing units at the time of renewal of Consent to Operate or within one year from the date of directions issued by CPCB regarding implementation of revised classification, whichever is earlier.
7. Equal weightage given to all three pollutant groups- Air, Water, and Waste.
8. Cumulative PI based on weighted proportionate scores of pollutant groups.
9. Appropriate weightage to scale of operations by introducing more slabs to bifurcates sub-sectors based on pollution load, scale of operation, production technology and type of fuel used.
10. Introduction of sub-categories for sectors based on cleaner technologies, fuel types, integrated/segregated operations etc.
11. Encouragement to industries for progressive environmental management.
12. A tool for SPCBs/PCCs to assess the Cumulative Pollution Index and category based on revised method.
13. The category of the sector to be decided based on the pollution index ranges provided.
14. All pending application for consideration of CTE/CTO and future such application will be processed by the respective SPCBs/PCCs as per the revised methodology of classification.
15. For CTE granted before the revised classification, applicability of CTO will be as per new classification.

For a detailed information please refer to the hyperlink below.

Source: Central Pollution Control Board

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