Telangana knocks off Orange' tag on hotels, hospitals

Hyderabad: The Telangana state government has decided to change the hotels, hospitals, printing presses and other establishments that fall under the ‘Orange’ list to ‘Green’ category, so as to avoid shifting of polluting industries from the city to areas outside the Outer Ring Road(ORR).

The pollution control board has listed industrial units into three categories. Industries having a pollution index score of 60 and above are in Red category. Industries with a score of 41 to 59 are in Orange category and the industries having a score of 21 to 40 in Green category.Recently, the central government has added a new White category, and the industries having a pollution Index score of up to 20 are put in this list.

According to GO 20, relating to shift of polluting industries from within the ORR to outside of it, as many as 1,160 polluting industries have been identified. Among these industries, the TS pollution control board has identified 803 units in the Red category and 357 in Orange. The state government has constituted a committee for shifting polluting industries in Red and Orange lists to outside the ORR. In the Orange category, there are three-star hotels or those having more than 20 rooms but less than 100 rooms, printing presses, hospitals, among others.

As per this listing, many major hospitals, star hotels and others have to be shifted from the city to outside of the ORR. A member of the committee said that they would, therefore, consider changing the star hotels, hospitals and others from Orange to Green category. By this, the star hotels, hospitals and others in Orange category need not shift their locations. Discussions are under way, and the order to this effect would follow.