Ooty: With enforcement directorate(ED) have begun to tighten its hold on the group managing Sterling Biotech Limited, which is hitting the headlines now, the chances of reopening of the company’s pharmaceutical-gelatin production factory in Ooty looks bleak as the near future of near 500 employees in this unit in Ooty looks to be gloomy.
Sources in Sterling Biotech here in Ooty said that though the ED has attached the Sterling Biotech units in foreign countries, nothing happened to Sterling Biotech units functioning in various places across India.
However, the future of its pharmaceutical -gelatin production unit here, which is already closed now due to issues related to pollution control, is uncertain as it is future now begun to hang in balance.
Sterling Biotech in Ooty which began to face the heat an year ago over effluent discharge issue had to close it down as it failed to comply with the latest norms on effluent discharge set by Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB).
Though the TNPCB gave three months time in the beginning of 2018 to install latest “Zero Effluent Discharge” unit, the company failed to comply within the prescribed time that led to its closure in June 2018, said sources.
According to sources in Sterling Biotech in Ooty, the company wanted at `15 crore to erect the “Zero Effluent Discharge” unit in its campus with the latest technological support from a Japan-based company. While the company tried to source funds to install this unit, it could not succeed as the banks and other private finance corporation failed to help the debt-ridden management of Sterling Biotech firms in the country.
“With no other alternative to source funds to re-run the Sterling Biotech in Ooty, it is almost certain that it is on its way to permanent closure,” sources added.
