Chemplast Sanmar, part of the Sanmar Group, a leading family-owned south Indian conglomerate engaged in chemical and engineering businesses, has secured Supreme Court’s nod for its Rs 600 crore green-field PVC (poly vinyl chloride) project at Cuddalore, about 185 km south of Chennai.

The apex court had dismissed a batch of appeals and petitions challenging the clearances granted by ministry of environment & forests, (MoEF) and the Tamil Nadu public works department to Chemplast for its PVC plant and marine terminal facility including the pipeline crossing Uppanar river, for drawing the raw material vinyl chloride monomer from the nearby jetty in Cuddalore district.

A bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan, justice R M Lodha and justice B S Chauhan dismissed all petitions and said, “We may observe that the project has been established by investing huge amount of about Rs 600 crore and has already been commissioned after obtaining necessary approvals and, therefore, it shall not be in the interest of justice nor in the public interest now to interfere with the project,” according to a copy of the judgement available on the apex court’s website.

In its judgment rejecting all petitions challenging the environmental clearance to the project, the bench said, “We do not find any infirmity in the permission granted by the ministry of environment and forests on December 19, 2005”, and having held so, there is no illegality in the permission granted by PWD in February 2008 either.

After several months of delay and cost over-runs, the Tamil Nadu deputy chief minister, M K Stalin inaugurated the PVC plant in September 2009. It will initially have a capacity of 170,000 tonnes a year. However, the company has secured approvals to expand the capacity up to 226,000 tonnes based on the demand growth.