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Company to implement Vellore effluent plan

S. Gopikrishna Warrier

CHENNAI, June 18

A SPECIAL purpose company will be set up to implement the project to lay a pipeline along the Palar river bed to transport treated tannery effluents from Vellore district to the Bay of Bengal.

The Chairman of the Council for Leather Exports (CLE), Mr. M.M. Hashim, said the decision to set up the company was taken at a recent meeting between leather industry leaders and senior State Government officials.

At a meeting held at the Central Leather Research Institute (CLRI), in March, the Union Environment Minister, Mr. T.R. Baalu, had suggested that the industry and the State Government get together and develop a plan to implement the project.

According to Mr. Hashim, it was decided that the new company would have the involvement of the State Government and the leather industry in its equity. The company will be floated by the Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation (TIDCO).

Describing this decision as a ``major breakthrough'', he said after the company is formed the preparation of the detailed project report and other activities will be carried out.

While an outlay of Rs. 150 crores was estimated for the project earlier, it could even go up to Rs. 200 crores, he said.

The project was envisaged when even after setting up common and individual effluent treatment plants the treated effluents did not meet the standard of 2,100 ppm for total dissolved solids (TDS) for discharge into the river.

Two alternatives were thought of since the standard for discharge into the sea is higher. The first involved setting up leather tanning industrial estate near the coast and the second involved transporting treated effluents through pipeline along the Pal ar river bed.

Since the idea of setting up a tannery estate on the coast ran into objections from the local community, the leather industry and the State Government have opted for the pipeline option.

To improve the image of the Indian leather industry within and outside the country, CLE has signed up the advertising agency O&M for an initial contract of six months. According to Mr. Hashim, the agency will handle the preparation CLE's publicity materi al and also coordinate the visit of the Indian delegation to Germany, the UK and the US in the second week of July.

Within this larger agenda the agency will also work to counter the campaign against Indian cow leather products by the animal rights organisation, People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).

According to him, the PETA campaign has resulted in GAP stopping its procurement from India and the British shoe company, Clarks, asking the suppliers not to make products using Indian cow hide. Mr. Hashim said that the leather industry is collaborating with the Loss of Ecology Authority in its work. However, it is questioning the methodology adopted by the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU) to come to the figure of Rs. 120 crores as pollution damage in Vellore district. TNAU was commissioned by the Authority to make the assessment.

The Authority has, however, not finalised its award stating the amount that needs to be recovered from the leather industry as compensation.