Nearly eight months after ammonia leak, Ennore fertiliser unit starts preparations to resume partial operations

Coromandel International Limited resumes partial operations at Ennore plant after ammonia leak, facing environmental and safety regulations.

Coromandel International Limited, a fertiliser manufacturing unit at Ennore, is resuming partial operations, nearly eight months after an ammonia leak from its pipeline.

On August 15, the unit notified the National Stock Exchange that the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) had authorised the partial resumption of operations at the plant, excluding the ammonia storage facility. Subsequently, workers have started preparing the plant for resuming operations and police personnel have been stationed in front of the plant.

The unit has received approval from the TNPCB to resume operations of only the phosphoric acid plant and the sulphuric acid plant, excluding the ammonia storage facility, subject to conditions recommended by a technical committee.

The committee, which was constituted on a direction from the Southern Bench of the National Green Tribunal (NGT), had said the unit shall not carry out operations related to the ammonia facilities until certain measures were taken. These include replacing the existing offshore pipeline with a new pipeline and providing an adequate number of ammonia sensors all around the plant.

In an August 12 letter to Coromandel, the TNPCB stated that following an inspection conducted by the Joint Chief Environmental Engineer at the Ennore unit on August 1, permission could be granted for operating the phosphoric acid and sulphuric acid plants. However, the unit must adhere to the safety audit recommendations made by a private consultant, submit a report to the Directorate of Industrial Safety and Health (DISH), and implement all safety measures before resuming operations.

Further, according to an order from the NGT, the unit can resume full operations only after approval from the TNPCB, the DISH, and the Tamil Nadu Maritime Board. The State government had imposed a penalty of ₹5.92 crore on the company. The fine was to compensate for the damage to the environment from the gas leak.

Significantly, a petition filed by Ennore residents is pending before the NGT. It seeks to quash the environmental clearance granted to the unit because of the alleged violations of the Coastal Regulation Zone Notifications of 1991 and 2011.