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Procedure for Obtaining Consent to Operate

Sr No. Description
1. The new industrial units/projects falling under Red, Orange and Green Categories listed as Annexure-I, Annexure-II & Annexure-III respectively, after completing the construction and installation of their project with valid CTE, shall apply for 1st CTO before commissioning their proposed production/activities and even before starting the trial run of such activities/trial production, through the online portal of the HEPC i.e. http://investharyana.in alongwith the documents as per check list given at Annexure-IX and requisite consent fee as prescribed by the Board, which will be deposited through online payment gateway of HEPC, as per schedule available on the website of the Board i.e. hspcb.gov.in
2. The industrial units/projects failing under white Category as per Annexure-IV, are exempted from Consent Management for obtaining CTE and CTO under Water Act, 1974 and Air Act, 1981 and there is no necessity for obtaining the CTE and CTO by the industries covered under white category and other units not covered under Red, Orange and Green category and intimation to the Board in this regard shall suffice.
3. No documents are allowed to be submitted manually.
4. The validity of CTO will be 5 years in case of Red category, 10 year in case of Orange category and 15 years in case of Green Category of industries subject to deposition of consent fee by the units for the said period depending upon the category of the industries.
5. The units can operate their projects only after obtaining prior CTO.
6. At the time of obtaining 1st CTO, the industries will deposit the prescribed testing fees for analyzing their samples of effluent/air emission/noise, as applicable, only from the Board's laboratories which is given at Annexure-F.
7. The CTO applications for the projects/industries having investment more than Rs. 10 crore and involving CLU cases of more than 1 acre land, submitted on the portal of HEPC, are marked to the Nodal Officer deputed by the Board with HEPC for processing and deciding the same as per procedure laid down by the Board which will forwarded through online system to the concerned Regional Officer for scrutiny and verification.
  • Regional Officer further mark the application to the concerned field officer for scrutiny, verification and recommendation.
  • Inspection of the industry will be carried out by the authorized officer/ officers of the Board before commissioning of the production in the unit and before giving the 1st CTO, after getting approval from the Competent Authority, to check the status regarding installation of pollution control measures/ devices undertaken at the time of obtaining the CTE, as well to assess their structural adequacy before deciding the cases of 1st CTO.
  • After scrutiny of the application and site inspection of the industry, case is recommended for grant of CTO by the field officer to the Regional Officer in case application is found complete and the unit found installed the required pollution control devices at site. Thereafter, the Regional Officer will forward to the case to the Nodal Officer of the Board with HEPC with his recommendation for grant of CTO and the CTO will be issue by the Nodal Officer through online system to the unit under his digital signature.
  • After verification if the application is found incomplete and discrepancies are observed in the installation of pollution control devices at site, show cause notice for refusal of CTO is issued for 15 days after approval from Regional officer.
  • If the unit submits the satisfactory compliance report for the shortcomings conveyed through show cause notice, then the field officer recommend the case for grant of CTO to the Regional Officer who further submit his recommendation to the Nodal officer of Board with HEPC for grant of the same and then CTO is granted at the level of Nodal Officer.
  • If the reply of show cause notice submitted by the unit is not found satisfactory or the unit fails to submit the reply of show cause notice, then the case is recommended by field officer to Regional Officer for refusal of the same who further submit his recommendation to the Nodal officer of Board with HEPC for refusal of the same and then CTO is refused at the level of Nodal Officer.
8. The applications for the 1st CTO, for the projects/industries having investment upto Rs. 10 crore and change of land use (CLU) cases upto 1 acre in confirming zones, which are submitted on the portal of HEPC, are marked at the level of DLCC to the concerned Regional Officers for processing and deciding the same as per procedure laid down by the Board who further mark the same to the concerned field officer for scrutiny, verification and recommendation.
  • Inspection of the industry will be carried out by the authorized officer/ officers of the Board before commissioning of the production in the unit and before giving the 1st CTO, after getting approval from the Competent Authority, to check the status regarding installation of pollution control measures/ devices undertaken at the time of obtaining the CTE, as well to assess their structural adequacy before deciding the cases of 1st CTO.
  • After scrutiny of the application and site inspection of the industry, case is recommended for grant of CTO by the field officer to the Regional Officer in case application is found complete and the unit found installed the required pollution control devices at site and the CTO will be issued by the Regional Officer through online system to the unit under his digital signature.
  • After verification if the application is found incomplete and discrepancies are observed in the installation of pollution control devices at site, show cause notice for refusal of CTO is issued for 15 days after approval from Regional officer.
  • If the unit submits the satisfactory compliance report for the shortcomings conveyed through show cause notice, then the field officer recommend the case for grant of CTO to the Regional Officer and CTO is granted at the level of Regional Officer.
  • If the reply of show cause notice submitted by the unit is not found satisfactory or the unit fails to submit the reply of show cause notice, then the case is recommended by field officer to Regional Officer for refusal of the same who refuse the CTO and issue the letter to the unit for refusal of CTO under his digital signature.
9. Instructions already issued for clearances of CTO applications, within 60 days in normal circumtances and in 85 days in case of incomplete applications, vide order dated 20.10.2015.
10. The units will be at liberty to deposit the full applicable consent fee for the whole prescribed period depending upon their category. However the units shall be at liberty to apply for consent to operate for lesser period also by giving justification for the same. The fees for consent to operate can also be deposited by the industries in installments as per time schedule given below :-
Serial No. Category Validity period of consent Time Schedule
1. Red 05 Years For the First 03 years, at the time of filing of application and for the remaining 02 years before ending the 3rd year.
2. Orange 10 Years For the First 04 years, at the time of filing of application, for next 03 years before ending the 4th year and for the remaining 03 years before ending the 7th year.
3. Green 15 Years For the first 05 years at the time of filing the application, for next 05 year before ending the 5th year and for the remaining 05 year before ending the 10th years.
11. In case of the units, who opted to pay consent fee in installments for obtaining CTO for longer period and fails to deposit the installment of consent fees within prescribed time limit, the CTO so granted will be revoked/cancelled for the remaining period for which consent fees will not be deposited, after following the due procedure.
12. The consent to operate granted shall have the validity ending as indicated in the table below:-
Serial No. Category Validity month (up to)
1. Red End of September
2. Orange End of March
3. Green End of December