Nandesari Industries Association president Mohan Nair and chairman of the Nandesari Environment Control Limited (NECL) Babubhai Patel told reporters here on Tuesday that the site had been created following directives from the Gujarat Pollution Control Board. The NECL in turn asked the National Productivity Council to identify and approve land for a common solid waste disposal site.

They said out of 267 industrial units in Nandesari, about 200 manufacture a wide range of chemicals and produce huge quantities of solid waste and they needed a safe disposal facility. The Council identified an area of 30,000 square metres for the purpose, and the land was procured from the Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC).

The first phase of the landfill cell has been designed to last till four years and once it is filled up, they proposed to do plantation over it. The site can handle 12,300 tonnes a year and so it will have 49,200 tonnes of solid waste from chemical and other factories.

At present 120 member-units of NECL in the estate and 40 outside generate about 8,000 tonnes of solid waste a year. According to Nair and Patel, after this site is filled up another will be identified. The site was formally launched by the State Governor in July last.