Pollution Consent (CTE/CTO) for a Factory in Maharashtra: MPCB Process and Documents

A factory in Maharashtra needs consent from the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) twice: Consent to Establish before it is built, and Consent to Operate after the pollution control equipment is installed and before production begins. Red, orange and green units apply, white-category units only intimate the Board. Applications run through MAITRI registration and the EC-MPCB portal.

What are the two consents and who needs them?

MPCB's consent page states that consent to establish is needed before setting up any industry or process, and that consent to operate is needed once the unit is built with its pollution control equipment and before production starts. Operating consent is granted for a fixed period and must be renewed. Any operation that discharges effluent, or dust and fumes, that can pollute land, air or water falls within it. The legal basis is section 25 of the Water Act and section 21 of the Air Act.

Category decides the effort. The Board follows the CPCB's revised classification, which scores a sector on a pollution index: red at 60 and above, orange 41 to 59, green 21 to 40, and white up to 20. MPCB's page notes that white-category industries do not need consent to operate and only need to intimate the Board, and that red-category industries are generally not permitted in fragile or protected areas. The Board issued circulars in June 2025 on new white-category sectors and on aligning with the CPCB directions. Separately, the Central Government exempted 86 white-category sectors from consent under the Water Act and the Air Act in October 2025 (G.S.R. 762(E) and 761(E)); the list includes dry electrical and electronic assembly and dry engineering and fabrication units.

How does the MPCB process run?

All MPCB services now start with a one-time registration on the state single-window portal, MAITRI, which MPCB's user manual says has been compulsory since 7 November 2017. The applicant fills a Common Application Form once, uploads or fetches documents from DigiLocker, pays a small registration charge, and is then passed to the MPCB portal for mobile and document verification before applying. MPCB's page points to the EC-MPCB portal for online services. The manual we used is dated 2021, so check that the screens have not changed.

Who decides depends on the size and nature of the project. MPCB's page says decisions are delegated by capital investment and category, from sub-divisional and regional officers up to the Consent Evaluation Committee, which handles large investments and all municipal corporations. Listed heavy sectors such as thermal power, cement, bulk drugs, tanneries and petrochemicals go to higher authorities, and cases in ecologically sensitive areas such as Dahanu, Matheran, Mahabaleshwar, Panchgani and Murud-Janjira need the Member Secretary's permission. The fee is set by capital investment, so the CA certificate matters twice, for the fee and for the delegation.

What documents does MPCB want?

MPCB's page does not list the documents, and we could not open a current MPCB checklist. The central consent guidelines of 2025 (G.S.R. 85(E), amended by G.S.R. 63(E) on 23 January 2026) require an application in the prescribed Form I for CTE and Form II for CTO, with mandatory enclosures. MPCB's August 2025 circular says it implements those guidelines. A neighbouring board, the Gujarat Pollution Control Board, aligned its own list to the central one in June 2025, and that list is a fair guide to what a Maharashtra file will carry:

• Land papers: allotment letter or possession certificate in an industrial area such as an MIDC estate; registered deed or conversion certificate elsewhere; lease or rent agreement where applicable.
• Environmental clearance with the EIA report, where the EIA Notification applies.
• Chartered accountant certificate of capital investment.
• Layout plan with the effluent treatment plant, and a process write-up with flow chart.
• Membership of a common treatment facility, if applicable.
• Technical details entered on the portal.

Check the list on the MPCB portal on the day you file. For renewals and amendments, expect to file only what has changed, as the central guidelines intend.

How long does consent last, and how is it renewed?

MPCB's consent page states validity of one year for red, two for orange and three for green, extendable up to five periods on payment of the fee. That page appears to describe an older fee structure. A newer MPCB circular dated 13 August 2025 introduces a simplified auto-renewal scheme for red, orange, green and blue category industries based on a self-declaration of compliance. It allows renewal for up to 5 years for red, 10 years for orange and 15 years for green, on payment of the consent fee. The conditions are:

• No increase in production capacity and no increase in pollution load.
• A marginal rise in capital investment, up to 30 percent, is allowed if it comes from infrastructure, clean technology or pollution control, with the extra fee paid. Above 30 percent, or if investment falls, a normal application is needed.
• The self-declaration is filed in the Board's format with the fee. The renewal is to be shown on the website within seven days, issued without a visit and placed before the Board's committees later.

The two documents differ, so ask MPCB which validity period will be printed on your consent. Treat the period on the issued consent letter as the one that counts.

How do the approvals fit with the factory licence and fire NOC?

Pollution consent is one of several approvals that sit side by side, and they ask for overlapping drawings. The factory licence needs a layout and a stability certificate, the fire authority needs a fire layout, and MPCB needs the effluent and stack details. Keep one revision of the layout across all of them. For the Maharashtra factory licence process see our guide on the factory licence and DISH approval, and the approvals overview shows how the other approvals fit.

How Secured Engineers helps

For Maharashtra this is a buyer's guide: we mobilise from our Noida (Delhi NCR) and Ludhiana offices. Design is in-house, so the water balance, effluent and sewage treatment layout, DG and boiler stack details and electrical load are drawn together. Fire NOC, CEIG and DISCOM net-metering filings are done in-house. MEPF and solar can sit under one contract. We have 535+ projects across 18+ states and 89.77% repeat clients.

If you are preparing a consent file, send the layout, process flow and water balance and we will check the drawings against the documents above before filing. Start from the SPCB consent page, message us on WhatsApp, call +91 70099 85817, or ask for a free proposal.