Calcutta: The Royal Calcutta Turf Club (RCTC) has till May 25 to prepare a detailed project report on a sewage treatment plant which it has to set up on its premises under orders from the National Green Tribunal.

The eastern zonal bench of the tribunal has threatened to impose a penalty on the club if it fails to prepare the report by the deadline.

The matter will be heard again on May 22.

The order followed a petition, moved by environment activist Subhas Dutta early last year, which alleged that untreated sewage discharged from the RCTC stables had been polluting the Hooghly.

Dutta had pleaded for an order asking the RCTC to set up a plant to treat the sewage before it was channelled into Tolly's Nullah, which is connected to the Hooghly.

Last December, the green tribunal had ordered the RCTC to set up a sewage treatment plant.

When the matter came up for hearing on April 25, the lawyer representing the club, Pratik Shanu, submitted that the process of preparing a detailed project report for the plant had started and would take some time to be over.

The tribunal was unhappy with the response. "We are not satisfied with the pace at which work is being undertaken as sewage continues to be discharged into Tolly's Nullah, which in turn flows into the river Hooghly," the bench of Justice S.P. Wangdi and expert member Nagin Nanda said.

"The RCTC is a well established and prosperous organisation and has the capacity to establish the requisite mitigation measures to offset the severe pollution.... We assume the management of the club is aware of this and, therefore, would not confine their activities only to profit," the bench observed.

It directed that the "entire process, including preparation of the DPR, be completed within a period of 30 days", failing which "exemplary penalty shall be imposed for causing environmental damage".

Asked whether the RCTC could meet the deadline, secretary Kanchan Jana said: "I have no comment now."