About Western Zonal Office

The Western Zonal Office of Central Board constituted in April 1988, is about to complete two decades of its existence. The West Zone Office has its jurisdiction over states of Gujarat, Maharashtra and Union Territory (UT) of Daman, Diu and Dadra & Nagar Haveli.

Brief Profile of Hierarchical Structure & Officers at Zonal Office

The Zonal Office has staff strength of 11 on regular basis in technical/scientific side and 12 supporting staff, which includes Laboratory, Accounts, Administration and project employees. Hence, the total staff strength as on 12.12.2006 is 23 only.

The officers in the western zonal office are from various academic disciplines like Chemical Engineering,Environmental Engineering, Civil Engineering, Environmental Planning, Biological Science, Environmental Science and Chemistry with varied experience of 8 to 20 years.

Brief profile of the entire Group “A” officers are being given separately under "Personnel".

In the beginning, one of the main activities of this office was to act as State Pollution Control Board for the UT. In November 1992, Daman Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) was constituted and all the powers related to UT have been delegated to the Committee. The Western Zonal Officer is also one of the DPCC members. Over the period, Zonal Office has taken many short term/ long-term projects for the public interest in addition to the regular works such as coordination with State Pollution Control Boards in implementing pollution control programs as planned by Head Office and MOE&F, investigation of public complaints and follow-up of court directives.

Jurisdiction Area Profile

The Zonal Office has highly industrialized area of the country in its jurisdiction. The agglomeration of industrial, commercial, economical and agricultural activities in western zone has made the activities of the Zonal Office more challenging.

The Maharashtra State covering vide varieties of industries but predominantly has Sugar & Distilleries, Dyes & Dyes Intermediate, Pharmaceuticals and Iron & Steel industries. Maharashtra also has two major oil refineries of Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum. Nagpur , Chandrapur and Vidarbha area has Power Plants, Cement Plant and Coalmines in dominance. The Nashik & Ahmednagar Districts have Sugar & Distilleries in dominance. Chemical industries are mostly located in Tarapur, Roha, Mahad, Patalganga areas. Chembur and Tarapur are two critically polluted problem areas identified by Central Pollution Control Board in the State. The Central Board has prepared the action plan for these two problem areas and reviews the progress of implementation from time to time. Number of common environmental management facilities like TSDF, CETP, CBMWF are coming-up in state.

The Gujarat State covers vide variety of industries but predominantly have Chemicals, Pharmaceuticals, Dyes & Dyes Intermediate, Oil Exploration and Textile industries. Gujarat has three major oil refineries of Indian Oil, Reliance Industries and Essar. Ship breaking activity at Alang near Bhavnagar is the Asia 's biggest Ship breaking yard. Chemical, Pharmaceutical and Dyes industries are concentrated in Ankleshwar, Vapi and Ahmedabad. Ahmedabad and Surat have more number of textile industries. Ankleshwar and Vapi are two critically polluted problem areas identified by Central Pollution Control Board in the State. The Central Board prepared the action plan for these two problem areas and reviewed the progress of implementation from time to time. State has many common environmental management facilities like Secured Landfill Site, CETPs, and Incinerators etc. Some large industries in the State have own secured landfill sites.

The UT of Daman, Diu and Dadra Nagar Haveli has metal processing units, packaging, Pharmaceutical formulation, electrical, cosmetics units in dominance. Daman also has Distilleries and Breweries. One common secured landfill site has recently commissioned in the UT.

The Zonal Office provides technical and Scientific support to DPCC from time to time.The Western Zone has also concentrated with “Recycling & Reprocessing of Hazardous Wastes” industries.

Activities Profile

The important functions being performed by the Zonal Office include

• Monitoring of Water and Air Quality,
• Effluent Sampling and Analysis,
• Inspection in respect of Performance of Effluent Treatment Plants &
• Air Pollution Control Equipment,
• Co-ordination with State agencies & Industries,
• Implementation of various projects in accordance of the annual action plan.

The projects executed so far are pollution assessment of rivers, Environmental Status, compliance verification, visits to 17 categories of industries, public complaint investigation, problem areas review, interstate river water quality monitoring, court cases, imparting training, conducting the mass awareness programme in the Western Region.

The Zonal Office is having laboratory for wastewater, ambient air, source emission analysis for most of the parameters including heavy metals. Its new office-cum-laboratory building is under construction.

Major On-going Activities of Western Zonal Office

• Environmental Surveillance;
• Status of Groundwater Quality Around Chemical Industrial Estates of Maharashtra;
• Inventory & Environmental Status Around Industries located in Non-confirming Agricultural Areas of Gujarat State;
• Study on Status of Environment in Cement Plants Located in Gujarat;
• Creation of Mass Awareness;
• Monitoring of Coastal Aquaculture Ponds in Gujarat & Maharashtra; and
• DOD Sponsored project on Land-based source of pollution in coastal areas.
• Interstate River water quality monitoring.
• Coordination with SPCBs/PCC of Maharashtra, Gujarat and UT of DDNH.