Scheme of Assistance for Common Environment Infrastructure: Common Boiler Project by SPV Constituted by Minimum 10 MSMEs

What is the common boiler component of Gujarat's environment infrastructure scheme?

Scheme of Assistance for Common Environment Infrastructure is an umbrella scheme of the Industries and Mines Department, Government of Gujarat, framed under the Gujarat Industrial Policy 2020. Its common boiler component funds a shared steam-generating plant built by a Special Purpose Vehicle constituted by at least 10 MSMEs, so that a cluster of small units stops running ten inefficient boilers and runs one efficient one instead.

According to the Gujarat Industrial Policy 2020 document published by the Industries Commissionerate, the component provides 35% of the fixed installation cost in the case of solid fuel and 50% in the case of cleaner fuel, up to Rs 2 crore. The umbrella scheme was notified with an operative period from 7 August 2020 to 6 August 2025.

The policy sets out the reasoning plainly: Gujarat wants to decouple environmental degradation from industrial growth, encourage compliance with environmental standards, and reduce air and water pollution from industrial clusters. Small boilers scattered across a cluster are among the least efficient and least monitorable sources of industrial emissions in the state, which is why the shared alternative is subsidised so heavily.

Key features

• Applicant is a collective, never a single firm.
• Minimum 10 MSMEs must constitute the SPV.
• Fuel choice decides the rate: 35% solid fuel, 50% cleaner fuel.
• Absolute ceiling of Rs 2 crore on the assistance.
• Administered by the Industries Commissionerate and District Industries Centres.

Who is eligible for the common boiler assistance?

The following can claim:

• A Special Purpose Vehicle registered for the purpose of building and running a common boiler project.
• An SPV whose constituent members number at least 10 micro, small or medium enterprises, each holding valid Udyam registration.
• Clusters whose member units genuinely use steam in their manufacturing process, so that the shared boiler displaces individual ones.
• Projects that hold Gujarat Pollution Control Board consent and lawful possession of the site on which the boiler is installed.

The following are not eligible:

• Individuals. No citizen can apply for a personal benefit under this component. It is an industrial infrastructure incentive, and this is the single most common misunderstanding about it.
• A single enterprise acting alone, however large its steam requirement.
• An SPV with fewer than 10 MSME constituents, or one whose members are large enterprises rather than MSMEs.
• Projects claiming for plant that is not the common boiler itself, separate components of the policy, with their own rates and caps, cover effluent treatment plants, evaporators, monitoring systems and cleaner production technology.

How much does the scheme pay, and how is the rate decided?

The rate turns entirely on fuel. For an SPV whose common boiler runs on solid fuel the assistance is 35% of the fixed installation cost. For one running on cleaner fuel it is 50%. Both are capped at Rs 2 crore.

Worked through: a common boiler with a fixed installation cost of Rs 3 crore attracts Rs 1.05 crore on solid fuel and Rs 1.5 crore on cleaner fuel. At a cost of Rs 5 crore, the cleaner-fuel calculation would give Rs 2.5 crore but the Rs 2 crore ceiling binds, so both variants converge near the cap. The 15 percentage point gap is therefore worth the most on mid-sized projects, exactly the range most clusters build in.

For common environmental infrastructure generally, the policy adds an important outer limit: total support from the Government of India and the Government of Gujarat together shall not exceed 75% of the total fixed capital investment. An SPV stacking a central cluster scheme on top of the state subsidy must test the combined figure against that limit.

What else the same environment chapter funds

Gujarat Industrial Policy 2020 groups several environment incentives together, and an SPV building a common boiler is often eligible for one or more of them:

• Common Environmental Infrastructure Facilities, CETPs, waste management systems, augmentation and technology upgradation of existing CETPs, common spray dryers and common multiple effect evaporators, at 40% of project cost up to Rs 50 crore.
• Zero Liquid Discharge: industries recovering at least 50% of waste through ZLD, as certified by the Gujarat Pollution Control Board, get up to 50% capital subsidy on the relevant equipment up to Rs 75 lakh.
• Green Estate development to 25% of project cost up to Rs 25 crore for setting up, relocating or retrofitting polluting units into green industrial estates, plus up to 75% of the cost of a site master plan up to Rs 80 lakh.
• Cleaner production technology to 35% of plant and machinery cost for MSMEs and 10% for large enterprises, up to Rs 35 lakh.
• Pollution control equipment to 25% for MSMEs and 10% for large enterprises, up to Rs 35 lakh.
• Green practices and environmental audit for MSMEs — 75% of audit fees up to Rs 50,000.
• Continuous Stack Emission Monitoring Systems to 25% of system cost up to Rs 25 lakh.
• Environment Management System and laboratory to 50% of equipment cost up to Rs 10 lakh.
• Shared safety and occupational health equipment for a cluster to 35% of cost up to Rs 35 lakh.

How to apply for the common boiler assistance

1. Form and register the Special Purpose Vehicle. Bring together at least 10 MSMEs that use steam, agree the shareholding and cost-sharing, and register the SPV as a company or society. Collect Udyam registration numbers for every member; the count of 10 is checked at scrutiny.
2. Prepare the Detailed Project Report and fix the fuel. Size the boiler against the aggregate steam demand of the members, price the installation, and decide between solid and cleaner fuel with the 35% versus 50% difference in front of you.
3. Obtain site papers and GPCB Consent to Establish. Secure ownership, lease or GIDC allotment for the plot and the pollution control board's consent before filing.
4. Submit the application to the Industries Commissionerate. File the proposal with the Industries Commissionerate, Gandhinagar, or through the District Industries Centre covering the cluster, in the prescribed format with the DPR, SPV documents, member list, quotations and consents attached. Ask for a dated acknowledgement.
5. Cooperate with appraisal and inspection. Expect scrutiny of the cost estimate and a site visit before sanction. Retain original invoices; the claim is settled against actual fixed installation cost, not the estimate.
6. File the disbursement claim after commissioning. Submit commissioning evidence, Consent to Operate and audited expenditure statements to release the subsidy.

How to check application and claim status

Gujarat does not run a public online tracker for this component. Follow the file through the office that accepted it, the District Industries Centre for clusters handled at district level, otherwise the Industries Commissionerate. Nominate one person from the SPV as the single point of contact so that the department is not dealing with ten members separately, and quote the acknowledgement number in every letter.

Common reasons applications fail

• Fewer than 10 constituent MSMEs, or members who cannot show valid Udyam registration on the date of application.
• The fuel claimed does not match the boiler installed. Claiming the 50% cleaner-fuel rate for a solid-fuel installation will be caught at inspection.
• The project is really a captive boiler for one dominant member. Steam offtake agreements across members answer this objection in advance.
• Missing GPCB consent, which stalls both sanction and disbursement.
• Double-counting against another component or a central scheme, breaching the 75% combined support ceiling for common environmental infrastructure.
• Filing after the operative window closed. The umbrella scheme's stated period ended on 6 August 2025, so confirm the current position first.

Help and grievance redressal

Approach the Industries Commissionerate, Government of Gujarat at ic.gujarat.gov.in for the policy text, formats and the current status of the scheme, or the General Manager of the District Industries Centre for the district in which the cluster sits. No dedicated helpline number is published for this component, so this guide does not list one. Treat any consultant who promises a sanction for a commission with suspicion, appraisal and sanction sit with government committees, not intermediaries.