Himachal Pradesh's environment protection and pollution control board would sign an MoU with National Council for cement and Building Materials (NCBM) for jointly executing a consultancy project in the area of environment protection and management. The chairman of the environment protection and pollution control board, Rajiv Bindal said in Shimla that the agreement would enable NCBM to help Himachal in exploitation of its huge deposits of limestone in a sustainable manner and bring rapid change in the socio-economic conditions of people. NCBM is an organisation for research, technology development and transfer, industrial services and continuing education in areas of cement, concrete and construction. NCBM has expertise in environmental impact assessment, environment engineering and technology, hazardous waste management, risk analysis, disaster management and environment quality mapping. He said that for sustainable exploitation of limestone it is necessary that the exploitation is done through judicious environment planning and environment impact assessment coupled with mitigation measures. He said that with signing of the MoU, the state's environment protection and pollution control board would be able to play a more pro-active role in accordance with its changed role and mandate. Bureau Report