Considering the success of HRDP SEP-net and legal obligation of CPCB under Air and Water Act an "Environmental Training Unit" (ETU) has been established by CPCB to expand the training activities to all functional areas of the CPCB and SPCBs. After the expansion of HRDP SEP-net was renamed to Environmental Training Network – ET-net and a new logo was also adopted.

Three coaching course of 3 weeks duration with support of InWEnt and GTZ have been completed on following:

• ‘EcoCities – Area wide environmental improvement through comprehensive urban management system’ in (Jan. 2004) including the production of an interactive learning CD for EcoCities,
• ‘Environmental Monitoring and Assessment’ (Nov./ Dec. 2004)
• ‘Eco-Industrial Estate Planning’ (Nov./ Dec. 2004)

Three short skills courses (5 days) in the fields of Environmental Monitoring & Assessment, Environmental Planning and Management and Inter Personnel skills were completed.

MoUs with NTIs NPC, EPTRI, DMI and ETI TNPCB extended till 2007 for conducting training programmes.

Expansion of ET-net: Two more training institutes i.e. IIT Kharagpur and IIT Bombay have been formally included in the list of existing NTIs and proposals of 7 other institutes are under consideration.

The Training Needs Assessment (TNA) at national level for 4 fields (Environmental Planning and Management, Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, Environmental Laboratory Analysis, Hazardous Substances/ Solid waste Management) was completed in association with InWEnt, Germany. Based on the results of TNA, a planning cum awareness workshop on HRDP ET-net of CPCB was also organised during Dec’ 07-08, 2005.

Standardisation and publication of HRDP training material available with CPCB was started for 12 courses with support of InWEnt, Germany, of which 3 were completed. The material is ready for final revision and printing under CPCB Publication Series "Environmental Training Series" as "Proceedings: Training for Environment".

HRDP Training Database was converted into digital form for dissemination information about number of participants trained, target groups, trainers, course tittles, dates, course contents etc.

Other activities completed by ETU include evaluation of 10 training courses of the year 2003 and 2004 for Quality Assesssment and Control, Steering Committee Meeting held in Jan’ 2004, preparation of promotional material (bags) for HRDP, documentation of participants, material and trainers, data collection on training profile of CPCB officials (under progress) etc.

Training programe on BenMAP (The Environmental Benefits Mapping and Analysis Program) by USEPA

A training program on BenMAP (The Environmental Benefits Mapping and Analysis Program) was conducted by United States Environmental Protection Agency ( USEPA) as per Memorandum of Understanding between USEPA and Ministry of Environment & Forests. The training program was organized by CPCB from 29^th Nov. to 2^nd Dec. 2004. BenMAP (Environmental Benefits Analysis and Mapping Program) is a software program developed by the United States Environmental Protection Agency to conduct benefits analyses in support of air quality planning. Benefits analysis in this context is a multi-step process involving mapping of air quality changes for populations, translation of those air quality changes into quantified reductions in the incidence of both mortality and morbidity, and application of valuation functions to translate those reductions in health impacts into monetized benefits estimates. Monetized benefits can then be compared against societal costs in designing and evaluating regulatory strategies and identifying optimal emissions control strategies. To conduct a benefit analysis, BenMAP combines air quality data, demographic data (population counts and disease incidence/ prevalence rates) and damage functions derived from epidemiological studies to estimate changes in mortality and morbidity incidence. These reductions in health effects can then be monetized using valuation functions based on cost-of-illness, contingent valuation, or other economic studies. BenMAP has been designed to provide the user with a high degree of flexibility in applying the model in different contexts ranging from local (urban-scale) applications to regional- and national-scale applications. The model can also accommodate user-specific damage and valuation functions, as well as demographic data in a variety of formats. The participants included various State Pollution Control Boards, representative from Hospitals and research institutions involved in carrying out Epidemiological studies.