India to become CTC free by year end

India will become free of Carbon Tetra Chloride, an ozone depleting substance, by the year end, a NGO involved in implementing the National CTC phase-out plan has said.

India will become free of Carbon Tetra Chloride (CTC), an ozone depleting substance, by the year end, a NGO involved in implementing the National CTC phase-out plan has said.

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Efforts had been taken to stop complete usage of CTC, used as a solvent and cleaning agent in various industries, and it would be totally phased out before December 31 this year, Susanta Deb, Field Consultant representing German NGO, GTZ-Proklima, that is implementing the phase-out plan in the country in coordination with the Government, told PTI here.

India is a signatory to the Montreal Protocol on Substances, an international treaty involving 193 countries for phasing out production of ozone-depleting substances.

The Ozone Cell in the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests is the agency coordinating the phase-out of CTC. The Cell had put in place a regulatory frame work and national phase-out plan to ensure domestic CTC production and imports progressively decrease in compliance with national targets.

CTC was widely used in many industry segments for its high solvency power, low cost and not inflammable, making it popular in many cleaning applications for the last six or seven decades, Deb said.