These industrialised zones are to be identified on the basis of important factors like the sensitivity and the pollution receiving potential of the area. These will then be used to assess the suitability of the zone for setting up of new industries.

The project comes as part of the move by the Environment Ministry to segregate industries from highly human inhabited areas in the country which not only lead to sever environmental pollution but are also a potential accident hazard.

Under the programme, the CPCB is to work in technical collaboration with the State Pollution Control Boards as well as district sub-centres, wherein the former would classify the environment of a given zone. The financial support for the project would come from the Environment Management Capacity Building Technical assistanceprogramme of the Ministry of Environment and Forests, according to sources.

To be carried out in three different phases, the programme would comprise of components like industrial estate planning, setting statewise guidelines for placing of industries as well as environmental planning of urban areas.

According to the Ministry of Environment and Forests the target is to establish such sitings at a rate of at least one in each state by the end of the current year. Under the programme, it is also suggested that depending on the pollution receiving potential of various sites or zones, possible alternate sites or zones in the districts can be suggested for relocation of various industries. In its earlier phase, the programme had succeeded in finalising 11 States where the district-wise zoning has been carried out. In six States the guidelines for the places of the industries are also to be finalised by the end of the current fiscal. These states are Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradeshand West Bengal.

The Ministry has also launched a number of programmes for optimum utilisation of the resources in a area by the use of cleaner technologies. For instance, it has launched the life cycle assessment in the steel sector. Under the programme the Ministry of Environment is funding the development, use and disposal and re-cycling of the by-products from the three major steel plants - the Bhilai plant of Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL), Jamshedpur plant of Tata Iron and Steel Company (TISCO) and Vizag plant of Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd (RINL).

Under the `cleaner technologies programme,' the Ministry has also identified as many as 1,551 large and medium scale industries which have been classified as the source of maximum contribution to the pollution of the ambient air and water in their area of location. Out of the 1,551 industries, the ministry in its last exercises has found that as many as 1,266 have provided the stipulated standards while as many as 130 have been made to close downwhile as many as 155 are still in the defaulters list.