Bodal Chemicals has approached the Ministry of Environment and Forests in connection with proposed expansion of its synthetic organic chemicals manufacturing capacity and proposed cogeneration power plant in it unit at Dudhwada in Gujarat?s Vadodara district.

The company proposes to raise the production capacity of intermediates from 1,200 MTPM to 3,100 MTPM and dyes from 1,000 MTPM to 3,000 MTPM. The proposed cogeneration power plant will have a capacity of 5 MW.

The company said it will invest Rs 85 crore in the proposed expansion.

The land area is 142000 sq m of which 42,600 sq m is for greenbelt development.

At present, the company is manufacturing H Acid, Vinyl Sulphone (VS), Acetanilide, B-Napthol and synthetic organic dyes.

The company is in existence at the current location since 2006 and the location is not falling in critically polluted area.

Bodal Chemicals said that there will be need for carrying out EIA study for proposed expansion project and conducting public hearing.

According to the company, baseline data is being collected for the proposed project and a study area of 6 km radius has been chosen.

Six sampling stations have been selected within the study area as per the guidelines of the Environment Ministry and Central Pollution Control Board based on predominant wind direction, upwind direction, crosswind direction, rural area representation and urban area representation.

Parameters like SPM, RSPM, SO2, NOx, HCl, CL2 and VOC are analysed twice in a week for each station throughout the study period of four weeks.