The bulk drug manufacturers in Andhra Pradesh are upset over the indifferent attitude of the state government in commissioning the 18-km pipeline from PETL, Patancheru to Balanagar Mains to carry the industrial effluents to STP at Amberpet which would have been a big relief to the bulk drug industry that was afflicted by pollution issue. Even though the pipeline project has been completed two years ago as per the Supreme Court directive, the state government is yet to commission the project, putting the beleaguered bulk drug industry in great disadvantage.

Pollution has been a nagging issue for the bulk drug industry in Andhra Pradesh for over a decade and the state government had put a permanent ban not only on establishment of new units but also on expansion of existing units of Hyderabad and the nearby industrial areas of Ranga Reddy, Medak, Mahaboobnagar & Nalgonda districts banned.

As a way out to carry the industrial effluents to the sewerage treatment plant, Amberpet, the Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board (APPCB) and Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) had submitted a joint action plan to the Supreme Court in 2005. Based on this, the Supreme Court endorsed the recommendation in its order dated 12.05.1998 that 18-km pipeline should be laid connecting the PETL, Pattancheru to the Balanagar sewerage lines.

Accordingly the pipeline was laid and it is more than two years since the clearance from Hyderabad Metro Water supply and Sewerage Board (HMWS&SB) is awaited for its connection. In spite of several submissions made to HMWS&SB impressing upon them that the treated effluents discharged by PETL would reach safe disposal standards if they were mixed up in the sewerage pipeline which results in dilution of effluents by 1:60 times, there is inordinate delay in the commissioning of the same, Bulk Drug Manufacturers Association (BDMA) president M Narayana Reddy said.

Though an in-principle decision has been taken by the respective secretaries of the government departments and the APPCB for pipeline commissioning, nobody knows how long this delay would continue. Had this been done in time as per Supreme Court orders, the bulk drug industry would not have faced all these problems for 2 long years, Reddy said. A BDMA delegation met the state minister for forests and environment Ramachandra Reddy recently and sought his intervention in the matter for the immediate commissioning of the pipeline project.