What is Consent to Establish (CTE) and Consent to Operate (CTO)

These two consents form the backbone of environmental compliance for any industry that could generate air, water, or hazardous waste pollution.

Consent to Establish is required before construction begins on a new industrial unit or expansion project — it's essentially permission to build, granted based on the proposed pollution control measures and site plan.

Consent to Operate is a separate, subsequent approval required before actually commencing operations, verifying that the pollution control measures proposed at the CTE stage have genuinely been implemented.

Businesses sometimes conflate the two or assume one covers the other — in practice, both are required at their respective stages, and starting construction without CTE, or operating without CTO, both carry real regulatory risk.

Frequently Asked Questions