- Created on Wednesday, 05 March 2014 18:59
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Environmental approval is set to become a pre-requisite for grant of an industrial licence (IL) for manufacture of hazardous chemicals, if deliberations at the Industrial Licensing Committee (ILC) are any indication.
ILC recently deferred a decision on the application of Atul Limited, for substantial expansion of the manufacturing capacity for phosgene, a versatile chemicals building block that was used as a chemical weapon in the World War I.
ILC discussed whether the company should first obtain environmental clearance (EC) from the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MOEF) or whether it should be given industrial approval subject to subsequent MOEF nod. ILC decided that IL could be issued to Atul only after it receives EC.
The company has applied for IL to ramp up its phosgene capacity to 5000 tonnes per annum (TPA) from 1036 TPA at its production complex at Atul in Valsad district of Gujarat.
Atul, a flagship company of Lalbhai group, operates three production complexes at Atul and Ankleshwar in Gujarat and Tarapur in Maharashtra. Apart from phosgene derivatives that serve as intermediates for pharmaceuticals and pesticides, it also produces aromatics, polymers agrochemicals, bulk chemicals & intermediates and dyes. In all, it produces 850 chemicals.
The indication that ILC is willing to concede ground to MOEF in the realm of manufacture of hazardous chemicals is confirmed by another proposal for expansion of phosgene capacity.
In October 2013, ILC had approved Paushak Limited’s proposal to expand its phosgene capacity to 4800 TPA from 1600 TPA at Panelav in Panchmahals district of Gujarat. The approval for this application dated 25 October 2010 was given well after the grant of EC in February 2013.
Though the company had applied for expansion to 5000 TPA, MOEF had pegged the expansion capacity at 4800 TPA. When this difference of 200 TPA came up for scrutiny at ILC, Paushak settled for lower capacity of 4800 TPA to avoid further delay in project implementation. ILC endorsed this capacity.
