What is CTO?

CTO Stands for Consent to operate, is a Post Establishment certificate/authorization/NOC that is granted by Pollution Control Board after the CTE. 

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As per the Water (Prevention & Control of Pollution) Act, 1974 & Air ( Prevention & Control of Pollution) Act, 1981 before commencement of operation of any industry, project or activity, the project proponent requires consent to operate 
Generally the State Board issues consent to operate for a period of 5, 10 and 15 years in case of red, orange and green category respectively.

What is CTE?

CTE Stands for Consent to Establish is a Pre Establishment Certificate/authorization/NOC that is also granted by Pollution Control Board.

As per the Water (Prevention & Control of Pollution) Act, 1974 & Air ( Prevention & Control of Pollution) Act, 1981 before commencement of operation of any industry, project or activity, the project proponent requires consent to operate.

Why CTE & CTO Is Required?

CTE & CTO ensures that the industry establishing or operating will follow the air & water norms. 

As per the Water (Prevention & Control of Pollution) Act, 1974 & Air (Prevention&Control of Pollution) Act, 1981 any industry before establishing & before operation has to take the CTE & CTO respectively, without taking prior approval no industry can establish or operate.

CTO Annual Compliance 

Compliance can be defined as the ability to act according to an order, rules, act, or request.
Environment Compliance are the set of compliance that one has to follow before doing any business activity which adversely affect the environment.

Environmental compliances consist of CTE, CTO, CTO Post Compliances, Environmental Compliances, and Post Environmental Compliances and so on.

CTO Post Compliances

Before establishing any industry CTE is applied which means the applicant is requesting to Pollution Board to grant establishment permission after obtaining the approval pre-establishment approval the applicant start the construction work for the industry, once the Construction work is finished then the applicant applies for CTO i.e. consent to operate it means the applicant is seeking permission to run their industry. Once the CTO is granted an industry starts its operation work.
CTO is issued with some Provisions, provisions that comply with the standards of the Pollution Control Board.

Standards are issued in the CTO certificate for the wastewater, air emission, soil, hazardous waste, etc. The industry has to comply with the standard issued by the Pollution Control Board in the CTO Certificate. The applicant has to fulfill all compliances that are mentioned in the CTO Certificate failing to do the same can lead to cancellation of the certificate. These compliances are called CTO post compliances.

Different industry have different compliances as per their machinery, effluent, waste, air emission, wastewater details.

Governing Body

Central Pollution Control Board was constituted under the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974 & Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981. The function of CPCB is to draft new rules & guidelines in the favour of Environment. 

State Pollution Control Board was also constituted under the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974 & Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981. The function of state board is to implement the rules & guidelines issued by CPCB in public.

In case of CTE & CTO State Pollution Control Board is the apex body to issue the certificate.

Process Of CTO Post Compliance

For the inspection of fulfilment of CTO POST COMPLIANCES any official of the board conduct a visit to the respective Facility/Industry

At the business facility, Inspector will check compliance of NOC/CTE & NOC/CTO given to the facility under The Air & Water Act.

Checking of Air Pollution Control Devices (APCD) waste water disposal system & its functioning, efficiency of personnel handling the Air Pollution Control Devices (APCD) & waste water disposal system will be done by the visiting inspector.
Inspector will also check all necessary records like Air Emission Data, Operation and maintenance records of Air Pollution Control Devices (APCD) Installed, Annual reports, Training records etc.Waste Water Discharge Data, Operation and maintenance records of Waste Water Treatment System Installed etc.

Inspector will take the photographs of the Air Pollution Control Devices (APCD and also collect sample of waste water generated by the facility & take the photographs of the waste water disposal & treatment system, if needed
Subsequently a letter will get issued to the respective facility asking for a clarification over certain issues or providing information about the proposed punitive action to be taken against the facility

Documents Required For Post Compliance

Documents Required For Post Compliance under Water Act

• Compliance of NOC/CTE conditions.
• Compliance of Consent Conditions (CTO), Discharge Consent.
• Waste Water Discharge Data. 
• Waste Water treatment system. 
• Operation and maintenance records. 
• Annual reports. 
• Training records. 

Documents Required For Post Compliance under Air Act

• Compliance of NOC/CTE conditions. 
• Compliance of Consent conditions (CTO), Emission Consent. 
• Air emissions data.
• Operation and maintenance records.
• Annual reports. 
• Training records.