INDIA will soon join a select band of countries which possesses technology to develop alternatives to chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) which cause ozone depletion in the atmosphere.

The Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT) in Hyderabad, which has been working on this project since 1994. has said that it will release the new technology in the market next year. IICT will provide a new gas called HFC-134a. a substitute for the ozone depleting CFC-12.

According to J. Madhusud-hana Rao. a senior scientist at the IICT working on the project, this technology is at present in the possession of only multinationals like Dupont and Allied Signals of the U.S.. Elfatom

of France, a collaboration of the British company IC1 and the Japanese company Asahi, and a Chinese company.

CFC-12 is largely used by the refrigeration industry and experts say it is chiefly responsible for the increasing number of holes in the ozone layer in the atmosphere which, in turn, raises global temperatures.

India's efforts to develop an alternative to CFC-12 comes after the international accord signed in Montreal urging nations to cut down on emission of ozone depleting gases.

IICT Director K.V. Vlja-yaraghavan said research and development efforts at the institute were near completion

and a Rs. 50 million ($1.2 million) pilot plant for the production and testing of HFC-134a was being installed.

Experts say the development of the new technology will not only help solve the emission problem locally but also bring in foreign exchange as It is highly sought after throughout the world.

The IICT had developed this technology with backing from a number of private and government institutions, including the country's premier Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).

The IICT has developed 225 new technologies during its five decades of research activity.

But lately all the focus has been on the development of ecologically sound substitutes for ozone depleting substances.

The IICT is on the technical option committee of the U.N. programme on efforts to protect the ozone layer. The institute is also playing the prestigious role of a nodal institution for providing technical advice to the Montreal Protocol programmes on phasing out of ozone depleting solvents in India.

The crux of the issue is that India has been denied this technology by the developed countries, even as it has been made compulsory that the use of CFCs by developing countries should be stopped by the year 2005 under the Montreal protocol." Rao said.

— India Abroad News Service