Kochi: The Central Pollution Control Board has recommended to the southern bench of National Green Tribunal to direct the state government to provide 60 per cent of the total project cost of Rs. 60 crore for remediating the polluted river Periyar.
The recommendation is part of the report CPCB submitted to the NGT after conducting a 10-day inspection of the polluted areas along River Periyar in October last.
The State Pollution Control Board is now working on the remediation project based on a directive from the NGT. The CPCB report said the detailed project report should be finalised by March. Once the remediation technology is finalised, it will take two months to submit the DPR along with bidding document for selection of remediation contractor.
The report said the Union government has already agreed to bear 40 per cent of the total project cost. "The state government has informed us that it would recover the amount from polluting industrial units," S. Suresh, senior scientist of CPCB, said in the report. "Whatever be the method, the government should be directed to meet 60 per cent of the total cost."
During the inspection, the six-member project steering committee of CPCB inspected 34 industrial units along the river and reviewed the progress of the ongoing remediation projects in the eight contaminated sites along Eloor-Edayar stretch. The inspection followed an NGT instruction based on a petition filed by two green groups seeking measures for zero effluent discharge in the industrial area.
The State PCB should be asked to file an action taken report after inspecting the landfill areas and effluent collection tanks of industrial units during the next hearing, the report said.
A remediation plan is crucial as the areas are toxic hotspots, observe green activists. “Remediation will be a huge task involving removal of the sediments in the Kuzhikandam creek and its rejuvenation,” said Purushan Eloor, research coordinator of Periyar Malineekarana Virudha Samithi.
