Hindustan Zinc gets wildlife board approval for project in Haridwar

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New Delhi, Sep 28: Hindustan Zinc Limited (HZL) has finally secured an approval from the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) to set up a Zinc Dust and CGG unit near Rajaji national park in Haridwar in Uttarakhand.

With this approval, the HZL has cleared all the hurdles to establish 3,65,000 tonne per annum (tpa) zinc dust and 36,500 tpa CGG plant as it is in all likelihood to get a no objection certificate from the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) on air and water pollution impact in the region.

The plant, which will come up on 1,780 acres of land alloted by the government at State Industrial Development Corporation Limited (SIDCUL) adjacent to Rajaji park known for its rich elephant population, has already been approved by the State Pollution Control Board.

After initially disfavouring the proposal in their previous meeting as it was merely 480 metres from the park, the Board members approved it on basis of suggestions from a government team which noted that the unit envisages converting cathode metal sheet of zinc into zinc ingots without involving any chemical process. In 2006, the environment ministry while giving it clearance under the Environmental Impact Assessment notification had asked it to obtain permission from the NBWL before venturing into setting up the plant. The project is to come up at SIDCUL where Uttarakhand government has allotted more than 500 industrial plots to various industries alongwith incentives of tax benefits.

“After detailed discussions, the committee considered that environment impact assessment has already been done while giving environmental clearance and agreed to convey no objection to the project with observation that confirmation of Central Pollution Control Board should be obtained so that air and water are not affected.