An amount of Rs. 50 crore has been earmarked towards the implementation of a marine discharge project for treated effluents from dyeing and bleaching units, situated mostly in the western belt of the State. The marine discharge project, envisaging the laying of pipelines for 350 km, had been proposed as a measure of permanent solution to the problem of pollution caused by the units located in and around Tirupur, Coimbatore, Erode, Karur, Dindigul, Namakkal and Salem. Moving the demands in the Assembly on Tuesday for grants to the Handlooms and Textiles Department, B.V. Ramanaa, Minister, informed the House that of the total project cost of Rs. 800 crore, the Union government had announced an allocation of Rs. 200 crore. The State government's share would be Rs. 112.5 crore. A special purpose vehicle, Textile Eco Solutions Tamil Nadu, was registered. The National Institute of Oceanography and the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) were conducting the environmental impact assessment for the project. A sum of Rs. 1.25 crore had been sanctioned towards the first instalment. The Minister also told the House that as a sequel to the decision taken to examine various ways and means to achieve zero liquid discharge, a team of officials and representatives of common effluent treatment plants in Tirupur was sent to Gujarat to study the effluent treatment process. The team, headed by Principal Secretary (Environment and Forests), had submitted a detailed report to the government. Among the steps proposed to foster the handloom sector were the plan to computerise accounts of weavers' cooperative societies, modernisation of five cooperative spinning mills and the proposal to reduce the content of gold and silver in zari for bringing down the cost of silk saris.