Big projects must pay for upkeep of sewage plant……….Rajshri Mehta. Mumbai
Developers of all new constructions spread over 20,000 sq metres will now have to set aside the cost of operating and maintaining a sewage treatment plant for three to five years before forming a society.
Such big projects have to set up sewage treatment plants, according to rules framed by the Union environment ministry in 2006. But the state-level Environment Impact Assessment Authority noted that societies continue to release untreated sewage into the civic drainage network.
To ensure sustainable green development, the authority has made it mandatory for big projects to create a corpus of funds equivalent to the operation and maintenance cost of a treatment plant for 3-5 years.
The project will not be approved if the corpus is not created, according to Valsa R Nair Singh, chairperson of the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board and member of the authority.
The decision is applicable to projects that have got environmental clearance after October 2008.
Corpus will help maintain sewage plants
The Environment Impact Assessment Authority has made it mandatory for projects spread over more than 20,000 sq metres (built-up area)to set aside a corpus to maintain, operate a sewage treatment plant for three to five years.
Nair Singh, chairperson of the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board and member of the authority, said, they had found that the sewage treatment plants were not maintained, especially in buildings erected under the slum redevelopment scheme, once the society is formed. The corpus would help to maintain the plants. “The treated water can be used for flushing and gardening,” she said.
Singh said the move will reduce the toxicity of water being released into the sea or other water bodies in the state.
But Vimal Shah, managing director, Akruti City, said he was unaware of any decision to set up a corpus.
Sunil Mantri of Sunil Mantri Realty said, “People are reluctant to shell out more for corpuses. They are unwilling to shell out even a one-time maintenance charge, an option that we had considered,” he said.