Rudrapur gets effluent treatment plant

RUDRAPUR: Residents of Rudrapur can heave a sigh of relief. The State Industrial Development Corporation of Uttarakhand Limited (SIDCUL) has installed a combined effluent treatment plant (CETP) in Sector IIDC Pantnagar to treat the toxic water which was being released by nearly 430 factories in different drains and canals in the city.
The plant has been established in Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode by Hyderabad-based Ramky Enviro Engineers Ltd and is likely to run in full swing in the next three months.
Talking to TOI about the new plant, regional manager of SIDCUL, Gaurav Chatwal, said, “This entire project is being implemented in PPP mode. SIDCUL has invested Rs 6.5 crore in the project.”
Earlier, various residents had raised concerns that factories were releasing untreated water in canals and posed danger to environment and health.
Dr Sonia Adlakha, managing director of Narayan Hospital, said high levels of lead have been found in city’s water in the past 10 years. This has resulted in exponential increase in the number of patients suffering from cancer, hepatitis and several skin diseases.
The contaminated water is not only harming the environment but also affecting crops and domestic livestock. District agriculture officer, U S Nagar, P K Singh said this chemical effluent has caused adverse effect on crops. Most of the farmlands located near SIDCUL have lost their fertility due to the contaminated water released by various factories, Singh said.
Ramky Enviro Engineers Ltd, has signed an agreement with SIDCUL authorities. Under this agreement, SIDCUL has built a holding tank of capacity of four million litre per day (MLD) and has set up a necessary pipeline infrastructure for all the factories releasing liquid waste.
“Our team is now contacting every factory which emits chemical wastes. We are expecting to run the plant in full swing by January or as soon as the paperwork is completed,” Project head of Ramky, M Hema Prasad said.