For M. Elango of Navarathinapuram, a third generation entrepreneur, dyeing and bleaching of fabrics is a business learnt hard, the traditional way. Like him, hundreds of dyers and bleachers involved in micro and small businesses were hitherto not aware of the impact of their vocation on the environment, especially groundwater table, of Madurai. They have been following crude manual methods without knowing how to dispose of the effluents.
When the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) cracked the whip, insisting on zero discharge of effluents, the only option was to shut down shop. This compulsion resulted in the birth of Southern Districts Textile Processing Cluster Private Limited (SDTPC), a special purpose vehicle floated by 36 units, for the promotion of a common facility with zero liquid discharge technology, claimed to be the first of its kind in the State.
The common effluent treatment plant (CETP), to be constructed under the Union government’s Integrated Processing Development Scheme, will become operational at Pottakulam and Tamaraikulam in Kariapatti taluk of neighbouring Virudhunagar district with an investment of Rs. 167.3 crore by this time next year. It will come up at an industrial estate to be created under the Private Industrial Estate Scheme of the State government over an area of 100 acres.
For three districts
The CETP will cater to the needs of dyeing and bleaching units of Madurai, Sivaganga and Virudhunagar districts and can even perform outsourced work for Tirupur, Coimbatore and Erode. It will even facilitate migration of textile processing units elsewhere in the State to south Tamil Nadu, says KR. Gnanasambandan, consultant.
Explaining Sequential Batch Reactor (SBR) Technology to be adopted in the CETP, the Managing Director of SDTPC, Ritan N. Thakker, says that it will enable recovery of 90 per cent of water from effluents for reuse by units. It will also recover used salts and provide them for reuse. The technology conforms to Euro Standard and it will increase export potential. A team from IKOS, France, led by Christophe, its Director, International, visited the site for the industrial estate recently and expressed its satisfaction. A similar plant in Surat of Gujarat employs marine discharge of effluents by reducing their TDS and decolouring.
To start with, 36 units attached to the SDTPC will shift to the industrial estate by providing direct employment to 60 to 70 persons per unit. They will process textiles for bigger units in Tirupur, Rajapalayam, Aruppukottai and Madurai. The CETP will be self-sufficient on the power front with a co-generation facility. Its low processing cost is expected to give this green initiative a competitive edge over similar facilities spread across the country.
