The secretary of the Royal Calcutta Turf Club (RCTC) said on Monday he had been told that the National Green Tribunal had ordered the club to instal and operate a sewage treatment plant and ensure proper disposal of solid waste within three months, failing which the club would be fined Rs 50,000 a day.

The eastern zonal bench of the tribunal, he said, also asked the club to deposit a bank guarantee of Rs 1 crore to the state pollution control board as “performance guarantee” within 15 days.

“We have been told that an NGT bench today imposed on the club a bank guarantee of Rs 1 crore. We will also have to pay a fine of Rs 50,000 a day if the sewage treatment plant is not installed in three months. We will decide our course of action after discussing the matter with our lawyers,” RCTC secretary Kanchan Jana told Metro.

“We have not come across any sewage treatment plant in any race course in the country....”

Environment activist Subhas Datta, the petitioner in the case, said: “The bench of Justice S.P. Wangdi and expert member Nagin Nanda said concrete steps should be taken to prevent discharge of untreated water by the club and ensure proper disposal of solid waste, including horse droppings.”

The bench had repeatedly asked the club to set up the sewage treatment plant as its effluent had been polluting the Adi Ganga and the Hooghly.

The order for the setting up of the treatment plant was issued on the basis of a report filed by the state pollution control board and the Calcutta Municipal Corporation.

The report vindicated what green activist Datta had mentioned in his petition filed last year — that untreated effluent from the RCTC stables was polluting the Hooghly via the Adi Ganga.

The club had in November 2017 submitted before the bench that the preparation of the detailed project report (DPR) for the sewage treatment plant was “in progress”.

Later, after the bench had in April set a one-month period to prepare the report, the club moved a review petition opposing the order for the installation of the sewage treatment plant.

The petition, which submitted that there was no need to set up the plant because the effluent discharged by the club was not polluting the Adi Ganga and the Hooghly, was dismissed in August.

“During today’s hearing, it was found that the club had made no move to install the plant so far,” Datta said.

During an earlier hearing, the bench observed that the club was a “well-established” and “prosperous” organisation and had the means to introduce the measures required to prevent pollution of the river and the Adi Ganga.