In short
- A stone crusher needs a consent to establish before it is set up and a consent to operate before it runs, both from the State Pollution Control Board under the Air Act, 1981 and the Water Act, 1974.
- CPCB's Environmental Guidelines for Stone Crushing Units (July 2023) list what a board looks for, from wind-breaking walls and covered conveyors to metalled roads and a green belt.
- Those guidelines set no siting distances. Each state board has its own siting policy, so the distance from a village or a highway comes from that state's order.
- The dust limit is 600 microgrammes per cubic metre of suspended particulate matter, measured between 3 and 10 metres from any process equipment.
- The quarry is permitted separately. Agree who applies for each permission before the plant moves.
The usual way to lose two months on a highway package is to erect the crusher plant first and ask about its consents second. The plant is a fortnight's work. The paper that lets it run comes from several offices, each on its own timetable.
In outline, a stone crusher plant in India needs a consent to establish and a consent to operate from the State Pollution Control Board, a site that satisfies that state's siting policy, the dust controls in the Central Pollution Control Board's 2023 guidelines, local land permissions, and in many states a licence to store and sell mineral. This is orientation for a contractor, not legal advice. Rules differ by state and are amended often, so confirm the current position with the state board and the district mining office.
The layers of permission
| Permission | Who issues it | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Consent to establish (CTE) | State Pollution Control Board, or Pollution Control Committee in a union territory | Setting up the plant at that location |
| Consent to operate (CTO) | The same board or committee | Running the plant once the controls are built; renewed |
| Siting | The state board, under its own siting policy | Where a crusher may stand |
| Mineral storage or dealer licence | State mining department, through the district office | Holding and selling mineral stock |
| Land-use and local permissions | Revenue department and local body | Use of the plot for an industrial plant |
| Quarry lease, mining plan, environmental clearance | State mining department and state environment authority | The quarry, not the crusher |
Consent to establish and consent to operate
Stone crushers must obtain a consent to establish and a consent to operate from the State Pollution Control Board under the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974 and the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981. The first is what people usually mean by the pollution NOC for a crusher, and it comes before erection. The second follows once the board is satisfied that the promised controls have been built, and it is the one that has to be kept in date. CPCB places stone crushers in its Orange category of industries.
Both consents attach to a plant at a location. Move the plant to the next package and the file starts again with the board of that state, one more thing to allow for when moving a crusher plant between states.
What the CPCB guidelines ask for
The Central Pollution Control Board issued its Environmental Guidelines for Stone Crushing Units in July 2023. They describe what an inspector expects to find.
- Wind-breaking wall. A sheet or brick wall along the periphery, 3 feet higher than the highest node of the crusher, with stockpiles kept below it.
- Enclosure. Crushers and screens enclosed in sheeting, conveyor belts covered, telescopic chutes at discharge points.
- Dust suppression. Sprinklers, foggers or an anti-smog gun, with water sprinkling at unloading points and on belts. Groundwater for it needs the groundwater authority's permission.
- Roads and ground. Metalled or concrete roads and ramps inside the premises, wetted regularly.
- Stockpiles. Aggregate above 5 mm kept wet. Material of 5 mm and below kept covered.
- Green belt. Two to three rows of tall trees around the periphery.
- Monitoring. CCTV with 30 days of storage, ambient air monitoring upwind and downwind, and a display board with the CTE and CTO details.
The guidelines also limit operation to day time, 6 am to 10 pm, so read the hours in your own consent before you programme a night shift. And at application and renewal of the CTO they call for a checklist with geo-tagged photographs, so the wall, the covers and the sprinklers have to exist, not be on order.
The emission standard
The limit is in Schedule I of the Environment (Protection) Rules, 1986, in the entry for stone crushing units, notified by G.S.R. 742(E) of 30 August 1990. Suspended particulate matter measured between 3 metres and 10 metres from any process equipment shall not exceed 600 microgrammes per cubic metre. Note where it is measured: beside the machines, not at the boundary. A good perimeter wall does nothing for an uncovered transfer point.
Siting is the state's decision
We have deliberately printed no distance. Get the state board's current siting order, measure from the actual plant position, and do it before the foundations are set out. We could not find a published distance table for Uttar Pradesh, so there we would ask the board's regional office in writing.
Mineral storage, land and local permissions
A crusher plant holds mineral stock and sells it, and states regulate that separately from mining. In Uttar Pradesh the state's rules on illegal mining, transportation and storage of minerals require anyone who stores, trades in or consumes mineral to apply to the District Officer for a storage licence. The rules have been amended and we have read them only as quoted in tribunal filings, so take the current form and term from the district mining office. Royalty and transit pass paperwork covers what travels with each load.
Then there is the land. Expect to show title or the owner's consent for the plot, and expect the state to have a view on whether agricultural land can carry an industrial plant without conversion. Ask the district administration early.
The quarry is permitted separately
Everything above is about the crusher. The rock comes from a quarry with its own lease, mining plan, environmental clearance and mine-safety obligations, and a plant with every consent in order still cannot lawfully crush stone from a quarry that lacks them. How a stone quarry is permitted covers that stack. Where we are mining the lease as well as crushing, the two files run side by side, but they remain two files.
Who applies when the plant is ours and the site is yours
When we bring one of our plants onto a client's site, the consents still attach to that plant at that location, and somebody has to be the applicant. Who that is depends on the contract and on whose land and lease the plant stands on. Agree it before mobilisation. What does not work is leaving it unsaid.
We quote about a month from order to steady production on a site with reasonable access: two weeks to move, two weeks to erect and commission. That month assumes the paper is moving in parallel. Consent timelines vary by state, and this paperwork, with the lease behind it, is the most common reason an erected plant sits idle. Put each permission, its applicant and a target date into the work order. The first 30 days of a plant set-up shows where they fall against erection.
Standards and sources
- Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974, and Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981: consent to establish and consent to operate
- Central Pollution Control Board, Environmental Guidelines for Stone Crushing Units (July 2023), as annexed to CPCB's report to the National Green Tribunal in OA 653 of 2024
- Environment (Protection) Rules, 1986, Schedule I, entry for Stone Crushing Unit, notified by G.S.R. 742(E) dated 30 August 1990
- Uttar Pradesh Minerals (Prevention of Illegal Mining, Transportation and Storage) Rules, 2018: storage licence provisions as quoted in filings before the National Green Tribunal. Later amendments not reviewed
- Mobilisation period and contract practice: SM Infra's own operating record
Your contract and its technical schedules override anything written here. Check the clause before you build to it.