Audit must for reopening of plants: Pollution Board

NEW DELHI: A day after the Visakhapatnam gas leak tragedy, Central Pollution Control Board has directed all state pollution control boards and pollution control committees to ensure that “strict safety precautions” are taken before restarting industry units that were shut due to the lockdown.

CPCB on Friday issued a set of instructions to all pollution control boards and centres to ensure all units undertake a “proper safety and hazard audit” before they start operations after the lockdown.

All units that manufacture, store or import hazardous chemicals should be allowed to resume their operations only after they have taken adequate and necessary steps to prevent any chemical leakage/accident, it said. ET was first to report that following meetings at the Prime Minister’s Office, the environment ministry had on Thursday instructed CPCB to issue clear safety protocol for all industries. A massive leak of styrene gas at an LG Polymer plant in Visakhapatnam early on Thursday had killed 11 people and affected some 1,100 people.


In its communication to state bodies, CPCB has also directed them that all pollution control equipment and effluent treatment plants, including safety equipment and machineries, and connectivity of sewers should be kept in “good operable conditions” before resuming operations.