NGT halts construction at Maharashtra cement plant for failing to obtain Environmental Clearance for capacity expansion

The Western Bench of the NGT has directed a Maharashtra-based cement manufacturer to halt all construction activity at its Solapur facility after finding that an ongoing capacity-expansion project was being executed without a fresh Environmental Clearance under the EIA Notification, 2006.

The Western Bench of the National Green Tribunal at Pune has directed Vasundhara Cements Ltd. to halt all construction at its Solapur cement facility, finding that an ongoing capacity-expansion project from 2.4 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) to 4.8 MTPA was being undertaken without a fresh Environmental Clearance (EC). The two-member bench held that doubling installed capacity squarely fell within the threshold for a Category A modernisation under Schedule 2(c) of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification, 2006, and required prior EC from the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC).

The order, passed on 7 May 2026 in Original Application No. 76/2026 (WZ), comes in a complaint filed by a residents' association alleging that the project proponent had begun civil works for a new clinker line without holding any public hearing and without an EC for the expanded capacity.

The dispute

Vasundhara Cements operates a cement plant at Solapur with an EC dated 2014 for an installed capacity of 2.4 MTPA. In December 2024, the company began civil works for a second clinker line that would, on commissioning, take installed capacity to 4.8 MTPA. The project proponent's case before the Tribunal was that the additional line did not require a separate EC: it was being undertaken on the same site, within the existing plant boundary, and that the original 2014 EC had — in the proponent's reading — contemplated “capacity rationalisation” in its terms.

The applicants relied on a textual reading of the EIA Notification. Schedule 2(c) of the Notification treats “modernisation with increase in capacity” beyond a stipulated threshold as a Category A activity requiring fresh EC, irrespective of whether the modernisation is on the same site or not. The applicants argued that doubling installed capacity could not, on any reading, be characterised as routine continuance of an existing operation.

The Tribunal's reasoning

The bench accepted the applicants' textual reading. The 2014 EC, the order observes, was issued on the basis of an EIA report prepared for a 2.4 MTPA facility. The cumulative impact assessment in that EIA — on air quality, on water draw from the Bhima river, on truck-traffic projections, on dust emissions during loading — was constructed against a 2.4 MTPA baseline. Doubling capacity invalidates that baseline and requires the cumulative impact to be reassessed. To say that the 2014 EC anticipated such expansion is, in the bench's words, “to read into the document a clearance it does not contain.”

The bench drew on the precautionary principle as articulated in Vellore Citizens Welfare Forum v. Union of India (1996) and as routinely applied by the NGT in EC-violation cases. The principle, the order observes, places the burden of demonstrating environmental safety on the project proponent. Where capacity is doubled without a fresh assessment, that burden has not been discharged. Construction must accordingly halt until the proponent obtains the requisite EC.

What the order directs

The bench has issued four directions. First, Vasundhara Cements must cease all civil construction at the Solapur facility with immediate effect. Existing operations at the 2.4 MTPA line may continue. Second, the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) must inspect the site within two weeks and file a status report on the construction undertaken to date. Third, the project proponent must file an application for fresh EC with the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority within thirty days; the cumulative environmental cost for the work already done will be assessed by the SEIAA on a polluter-pays basis. Fourth, the matter has been listed for compliance reporting on 30 July 2026.

The bench has also directed the company to deposit an environmental compensation of Rs. 5 crore with the MPCB within four weeks. The order observes that the figure is provisional and may be revised — upward or downward — once the inspection report is filed and the cumulative-impact assessment is completed.

Outcome

Construction at the Solapur facility stands halted. The 2.4 MTPA line continues to operate. The MPCB inspection report and the company's fresh EC application are due before the next hearing on 30 July 2026. An environmental compensation of Rs. 5 crore is payable within four weeks, subject to revision after the inspection.