GPCB to Consider Coal Gasifier Report

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The Gujarat high court on Friday granted three weeks' time to the Central Pollution Control Board coal gasifiers. The expert panel was headed by officials of the CPCB and the Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB).

The high court has also said that the GPCB would consider the proposals of the Morbi ceramic units and permit them to operate modified gasifiers on a trial basis, if the CPCB accepts the nine-member expert panel report. This happened after the CPCB urged the court to give it six weeks' time to take a final decision on the report. However, the lawyers representing industrial units submitted that the central board should not require so much time because its members are signatory to the report. The court has kept June 12 for further hearing on this issue, said the lawyer representing the ceramic industries' association.

Earlier this month, the panel had submitted a report recommending certain measures to keep pollution within permissible limits if the ceramic industry were to be allowed to use coal gasifiers. This was done after examining five modified gasifiers in Morbi's industrial cluster.

(CPCB) to consider the report submitted by an expert committee on whether Morbi's ceramic industries should be granted permission to operate

In addition to routine checks by the GPCB and the CPCB, the committee has also recommended third-party monitoring twice a year to ensure compliance with pollution norms, if use of coal gasifiers is allowed. In its 72-page report, the expert panel has suggested stringent measures to curb pollution if coal gasifiers are allowed to be operated. It has laid down a list of parameters to which adherence should be made mandatory for those running the coal gasifiers. Adherence to the parameters is necessary to bring pollution level down to permissible limits as there was no available technology to ensure 'zero pollution', the report said.

The Morbi ceramic units run on coal gasifiers were closed following an HC order in October. This was in response to a PIL that claimed that the gasifiers cannot be used as they violated guidelines laid down by the CPCB.

Morbi produces almost 90% of the wall, floor and vitrified tiles in India. Ever since the court order, many units have switched to expensive natural gas which has hit them hard and put them on the back foot in their competition with the Chinese ceramic industry. The association's counsel told HC that the industry faces a financial crunch and, if the issue is not resolved at the earliest, industrialists would face difficulty in obtaining even bank guarantee. They cannot afford to run the units on gas.