Coke Gujarat Plant Fails To Get Environmental Clearance

According to sources, the board has informed that the company's application has been rejected primarily on the grounds of water discharge and liquid effluent disposal problem.

Coke had applied for site clearance for setting up a bottling plant on 53 acres of land at village Gobcaj in Khera district of Gujarat.

The bottling plant was to be Coke's only other company owned bottling operation, apart from the manufacturing unit owned by the multinational in Pune.

The application had been filed in the name of Britco Foods Company, a subsidiary of Coke.

When contacted, Coke's official spokesperson said that the company had received a letter from the authorities seeking clarifications on pollution control methods.

 

He, however, denied that the concerned authorities had rejected the site clearance application due to effluent disposal problems.

The pollution control board has also objected to the seepage of waste water into the adjoining fields.

According to the board, the site being land-locked, huge quantity of waste and liquid disposal would pose a major problem.

The multinational's proposal for the utilisation of 450 litres of treated water per day for the purpose of gardening did not seem feasible to the board.

~The company recently received clearance from the FIPB to invest $700 million through two subsidiaries in the country.

It also received clearance to set up a bottling plant in Gujarat with an investment of $40 million.

Coke is also actively sifting several proposals by its bottlers in the south-east Asian belt as prospective joint venture partners.