GPCB siting criteria (circular of 5 June 2025)

Before granting CTE, GPCB checks where the unit will be located. The current siting criteria come from circular No. GPCB/VSD-C-6-2021(2)/General/11, dated 5 June 2025 (signed by the Member Secretary), which supersedes the earlier siting circulars of 2022, 2023 and 2024 and incorporates the MoEFCC 2025 consent guidelines. The original (Gujarati) circular is downloadable from the Circulars page of this site.

Minimum distances by category

| Sensitive feature | Red | Orange | Green | |---|---|---|---| | Residential areas, schools, colleges | 500 m | 200 m | 100 m | | Rivers, ponds, lakes (per government records) | 500 m | 75 m if the unit generates industrial wastewater; 30 m if not | 30 m |

Key definitions and rules from the circular:

• "Residential area" means a cluster of 15 or more pucca houses. Workers' quarters or a labour colony built by the unit itself do not count.
• Water bodies are counted per government records — a pond on revenue records matters even if dry today.
• Natural drains: keep 12 m or the drain's width, whichever is greater. Where a drain passes through the plot, the buffer applies on both sides, and the drain's original condition must be preserved.
• Roads, railways, canals, monuments, religious places: keep the control-line distances prescribed by the respective authority (R&B, Panchayat, NHAI, Railways, Irrigation, Archaeology).
• Forests and coastal areas (national parks, reserved forests, sanctuaries, eco-sensitive zones, CRZ): minimum distances per the government notification applicable to that area — case-by-case.

When the criteria do NOT apply

The circular itself lists these exemptions:

1. GIDC estates — plots inside GIDC industrial estates follow GIDC's plot zoning, not these distance criteria. This is why GIDC is the safe harbour for siting.
2. Expansion within existing premises of a unit that already holds CTE/CCA, where the category does not increase. (Stringent norms/specific conditions may still be added.)
3. Service-sector units in local-body areas — hotels, auto service stations, healthcare units, railway workshops, laundries, gold hallmarking, municipal STPs — follow local-body rules.
4. Blue category facilities (MSW management, waste-to-energy, bio-methanation, C&D waste processing, composting) — follow local-body rules.
5. Where court orders, area-specific or industry-specific policies, or government notifications apply, those override.
6. In areas with an Urban Development Authority development plan, an industrial activity permissible under the declared use-zone is eligible for CTE accordingly.

Two more provisions worth knowing:

• Responsibility lies with the unit — consent obtained on wrong/incomplete siting information is liable to cancellation.
• Cases not covered by the circular go to the Board's siting committee.

Practical guidance

1. GIDC estates remain the safest choice — the distance criteria don't even apply there.
2. Check the map before buying land. For a Red unit, a single recorded pond within 500 m can sink the project; for Orange/Green the water buffers are much smaller (75/30 m) than commonly believed.
3. Use the Check Compliance tool on this site for a first pass, then verify on the ground — the tool uses OpenStreetMap, while GPCB counts water bodies per government records.