Secretary, AP Environment & Forest visits Sri City

Sri City, July 27, 2021: Vijay Kumar G. Srkr, IAS, Secretary to Govt., of AP, Environment, Forest, Science & Technology Department and Planning Department and Member Secretary (FAC) State Pollution Control Board (APPCB) paid a visit to Sri City on Tuesday. Ravindra Sannareddy, Founder Managing Director, Sri City accorded a warm welcome and gave a brief presentation on the unique features of the integrated business city. Welcoming the Secretary, Ravindra Sannareddy said,”Driven by the vision to foster economic growth with efficient environmental management for an improved quality of life, the Environment & Forest department of GoAP putting tireless efforts and this needs a special appreciation. We consider your presence a great opportunity for all of us to interact and share some of our views and seek your guidance. Your observations and suggestion will be very useful for us to progress further towards carbon neutral status.”

The Secretary inaugurated the newly commissioned sewage treatment plant (STP) of 2 MLD capacity and spread in an area 2.5 acres at the Electronic Manufacturing Cluster (EMC). The state of the art facility was built at a cost of Rs.8.5 crore.

Ramesh Subramaniam, President, Sri City Foundation gave a presentation on the CSR initiatives that encompass education, healthcare, sanitation, drinking water, etc., and the covid relief measures. Satish Kamat, President (Operations) detailed the various efforts being put for the sustainability of environment.

The Secretary had a meeting with the senior managers of the industrial units in which there was an interactive discussion on Pollution, Environment, Green initiatives, CSR etc., Appreciating the green initiatives of Sri City, Vijayakumar congratulated the Sri City Management for achieving Indian Green Building Council’s (IGBC) gold rating and ISO certification for Environmental Management Systems. Terming Sri City as ‘Green City, he said,”I am sure, with its active sustainability initiatives Sri City will soon emerge as a ‘model’ for other industrial parks in the state.”

Mentioning that the State government has created a corporation for Environment Monitoring and an online monitoring system for waste management with appropriate standard operating procedures (SOPs), he called upon all industrial units to strictly follow the stipulated procedures. Appreciating the CSR initiatives, he appealed the heads of industrial units to take up such projects either directly or contribute to ‘Connect Andhra’ scheme so that the Government can spend the contributions more meaningfully in the needy areas. He advised them to set up Skill Development Centres in their vicinity for training the local youth and make them ‘Industry-ready’. Giving call to increase more greenery in and around the factories, he asked the industry representatives to grow more trees in their premises.

Altogether 70 senior managers of industries took part in the meeting. The Secretary went round the industrial park and visited the production units of Rockworth and Everton Tea.