Gandhinagar   Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani on Friday virtually inaugurated the country's first Fenton wastewater treatment plant at the Vatva GIDC in Ahmedabad.

The Fenton Catalytic Reactor has been set up by the Green Environment Services Co-operative Society Limited (GESCSL) at its premises in Vatva GIDC at a cost of Rs 70 crore.

"The state government is committed to protecting the environment while simultaneously focusing on industrial development. At present, Gujarat has 35 common effluent treatment plants (CETPs) having a combined capacity to treat 750 million litres of industrial wastewater per day," Rupani said.

The GESCSL is administering the CETP at Vatva, catering to the industrial effluent released from its 674 member industrial units.

"The CETP outlet was having a COD of 350, which was a blockage for us for any sort of expansion in our industries. According to the Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB) norms, for any sort of expansion, our COD should be under 250," said Yogesh Parikh, the technical head of GESCSL.

"This forced us to go for a chemical reactor on top of the biological reactor at the Vatva CETP. With the help of Rs 20 crore subsidy from the Central and state governments, we set up this Rs 70 crore reactor. The plant has a capacity of cleaning 30 million litres per day (MLD) against our present effluent release of 22 MLD," added Parikh.

"The plant's running cost is around Rs 4 crores per month, which we will share among the members," he added.