Site appraisal for a hazardous-process factory in Tamil Nadu
Who this applies to
- The test is a hazardous process, an activity in an industry listed in the First Schedule to the Code, not the mere presence of a chemical on a list.
- The proposal is the initial location or an expansion. An appraisal of the original site does not automatically cover a later expansion.
- We have not found a Tamil Nadu notification that reconstitutes the committee under the Code or prescribes a Code-era form. Ask DISH which filing it accepts now.
What site appraisal is
The Code lets the appropriate Government set up Site Appraisal Committees, and one of their purposes is to consider and recommend on an application for permission to locate a factory involving a hazardous process, or to expand one (OSH Code, s.83(1)). A hazardous process is an activity in an industry listed in the First Schedule to the Code where, without special care, the materials, products, wastes or effluents could materially harm the people working with them or pollute the environment (s.2(1)(za)).
The committee must make its recommendation within thirty days of receiving the application (s.83(2)). That is a duty on the committee, not a deemed approval: if thirty days pass, you do not acquire a right to locate the factory, and an incomplete application does not start the clock in any useful sense.
For an ordinary private factory in Tamil Nadu, the State is the appropriate government. Its committee is the one constituted under rule 61-Q of the Tamil Nadu Factories Rules, which section 143(3) keeps in force so far as it is not contrary to the Code. Its membership is set out on factory approvals. We have not found a notification reconstituting the committee under the Code or prescribing a Code-era form, so do not rely on a membership list or a delegated officer named in an older format. Legacy Tamil Nadu and DGFASLI formats are useful as a guide to what the application should contain, but neither is the prescribed form.
What it costs to get wrong
The most common mistake is treating consent to establish or environmental clearance as if it answered this question. It does not, and the siting question stays open until the committee has recommended. Buying the land first is a commercial risk you take on yourself; it gives you no claim to a favourable recommendation. This page does not state a penalty amount.
A recommendation given before the Code is not void. Section 143(3) preserves action taken under the old law, but you still have to compare what was appraised with what you are now building, because an expansion can need a fresh recommendation even where the original site was appraised.
The process
Confirm that the trigger is met
Identify the hazardous process by reference to the First Schedule, and decide whether the proposal is an initial location or an expansion. A major-accident threshold under the MSIHC Rules is a different legal test: it is neither a reason on its own to file nor a reason not to. Separately, a factory that proposes to start a hazardous process must inform the Chief Inspector-cum-Facilitator of its nature and details within the thirty days before the process begins (OSH Code, s.84(5)).
Get DISH's current filing direction
Ask DISH which form and which route it accepts now, and keep its answer on file. Do not file a model form as if it were notified Tamil Nadu law.
File the application before the location or expansion is carried out
A workable application usually covers the site and the surrounding land use; the process description and flow sheets; the hazardous-substance inventory, with safety data and maximum quantities; a risk assessment and the receptors it identifies; waste and emission arrangements; emergency and firewater provisions; occupational health arrangements; and the status of the environmental clearance, consent, MSIHC and PESO filings. The figures in it have to match those other filings.
Carry the recommendation into the other permissions
Answer technical queries and revise the controls the committee asks for, then keep the recommendation with the factory approval record. A recommendation does not authorise operation. The factory licence, planning permission, fire approval and pollution consents remain separate decisions, and the on-site emergency plan still needs the Chief Inspector-cum-Facilitator's approval (s.84(4)). Section 83 does not, by itself, put this recommendation ahead of all of them in every case, so agree the sequence with the authorities for your site.
Common failure points
- Calling consent to establish a site appraisal approval. They answer different questions.
- Filing after construction has started. The committee's purpose is to advise on the location before it is fixed.
- Using one inventory for the appraisal and another for the clearance, PESO licence or emergency plan.
- Treating the recommendation as permission to run the factory. The licence is a separate decision.
Siting or expanding a hazardous-process factory?
Send us the process and whether this is a new location or an expansion. We will tell you whether a Site Appraisal Committee recommendation has to be sought, and which other permissions it does not replace.