Coca Cola shelves Varanasi plant expansion owing to 'inordinate delay' in NOC.

Beverages giant Coca Cola has shelved the plan to expand its bottling plant at Varanasi citing 'inordinate delay' in receiving clearance for the project from Central Ground Water Authority (CGWA).

The company had first approached the Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board (UPPCB) in 2012 to expand the plant by adding another line that can produce 600 PET bottles per minute at an investment of Rs. 145 crore.

Incidentally, Varanasi is Prime Minister Narendra Modi's constituency.

As part of the conditional consent given by UPPCB for the project, the company was required to apply to the CWGA and obtain no objection certificate (NOC) for groundwater abstraction to meet its increased water requirements.

'However, due to inordinate delay in receiving of the aforesaid NOC, causing delay in expansion leading to financial losses, we have decided not to pursue the expansion at Varanasi plant,' Coca Cola India said in a letter to Uttar Pradesh Chief Secretary.


ET