Pune News: Pimpri-Chinchwad And Sangli WTE Units Pulled Up For Severe Environmental Violations, CPCB Tells NGT  

Pune, 18 November 2025: The Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) has issued a show-cause notice to Pimpri-Chinchwad Waste to Energy (WTE) incineration plant run by Antony Lara Renewable Energy Pvt Ltd and Sangli’s Waste-to-Energy (WTE) plant run by Bhumi Green Energy Pvt Ltd. The latest CPCB report submitted to the National Green Tribunal (NGT) in November reveals shocking violations of environmental and public health safeguards. Yet, the Union government in a draft notification has proposed to exempt WTEs from any prior environmental clearance that will pave the way for more such toxic projects in Maharashtra and across India.

According to the CPCB’s submission to the NGT:

● Flue gas emissions showed concentrations of Total Particulate Matter (TPM), PM10, PM2.5, NO₂, and Benzene far above prescribed limits, posing serious risks to air quality and respiratory health in Pimpri-Chinchwad’s WTE plant.

● Leachate generated at the facility contained extremely high levels of Suspended Solids (SS), Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD), Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), Total Dissolved Solids (TDS), Chlorides (Cl), and Mercury (Hg) — all exceeding permissible standards, raising grave concerns about soil and groundwater contamination Pimpri-Chinchwad’s WTE plant.

● Stack emissions such for dangerous chemicals such as Dioxins and Furans,

Cadmium (Cd) + Thorium (Th) + Stibium (St) + Arsenic (As) + Lead (Pb) +

Chromium (Cr) + Mercury (Hg) their compounds were not being monitored for all

parameters as mandated under Schedule II of the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016 — in Pimpri-Chinchwad and Sangli’s WTE plant.

● The WTE plant in Sangli was not monitored even once for the past 5 years by the MPCB.

● The minimum temperature of the combustion chamber was only 230 degree celsius against the mandated 850 degree celsius in Sangli WTE plant and even the loss of ignition is very high at 6% indicating improper combustion of waste.

Based on these violations, the 1000 ton/day WTE plant operator in Pimpri-Chinchwad was issued a show-cause notice and the Sangli WTE plant operator was issued directions. The CPCB report comes at a time when the state of Maharashtra is gearing up for more WTE incineration plants across the state, including one in Mumbai. “The Bombay High Court has already observed that the health of residents in this area is the most affected due to pollution

from an incinerator, stressing that no further tolerance can be allowed at the cost of human health. Building a new WTE incinerator in Deonar will lead to a grave emergency,” said 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DKYXcHYZHT5zvFqDPTk7OB7_Fjsph4R6/view?usp=drive_link

Advocate Faiyaz Alam Shaikh, President of Govandi New Sangam Welfare Society, has filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) against the State of Maharashtra in the Bombay High Court. Speaking against the draft notification by the MOEFCC to exempt WTEs from prior environmental clearance, Adv. Lara Jesani (Gen. Sec. PUCL) said that,“Calling it green does not make it clean. Environment and social impact assessment of the project is necessary to ascertain whether the project is truly green and clean. If the project does not have any adverse impact then why the fear of doing assessment and if it is not then how will one assess the damage it is going to cause. This is entirely against the spirit of environmental protection. Such exemption cannot be allowed.” 

Our Key demands: ● Immediate suspension of operations at the Pimpri-Chinchwad and Sangili plants until compliance with safe handling and disposal norms is ensured, levy environmental compensation and initiation of prosecution under applicable laws. ● Scrap the proposed WTE in Deonar, Mumbai. ● Scrap the proposed exemption for WTE incinerators from Prior Environmental Clearance. ● Based on the compliance report submitted by the CPCB, an independent expert committee, including civil society and medical experts, must be constituted to inspect the WTE operations and assess cumulative environmental and health damages. ● As of Nov 17, 2025 online reporting of OCEMS at both the WTE plants in Moshi and Sangali is not functional. We demand that the corresponding project operators be instructed to keep publishing OCEMS data on the CPCB portal without failure. Link: https://rtdms.cpcb.gov.in/data/#/l/industry-details/ We also demand that based on the CPCB compliance report, the state governments should also conduct a public health survey to probe more into the impact of pollution these WTEs may have caused, if they are already out of bounds.

Air pollution from unchecked emissions from WTEs threatens the health of residents, especially children, women and the elderly. Untreated leachate laden with mercury and other toxins contaminates soil and groundwater. This CPCB report is very significant for Pune and Mumbai as both these cities are planning to set up WTE plants to tackle the waste issue. However, the solution to the waste issue must address systemic reforms such as restricting single-use plastics at the source, production reduction, ensuring strict segregation of waste, and scaling up decentralised processing models.