Coal-fired power plant to shut by July 2018: EPCA

Site a major air polluter

New Delhi, May 12: The coal-based Badarpur power plant, considered a major source of air pollution in Delhi, will close by July 2018, the Supreme Courtappointed Environment Pollution-Prevention and Control Authority (EPCA) on Friday said.

The NTPC (National Thermal Power Corporation) has also prepared a remediation plan on managing the flyash, of around 250 lakh tonne, present at the site, which also adds to the level of particulate matters in the city’s air.

The plan has been submitted to the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC), an NTPC official told an EPCA meeting here, which was chaired by its chairman Bhure Lal and attended by the authorities concerned.

The plan involves growing special plants (Ipomoea) to prevent the fly ash from getting airborne as has been done in the entity’s Dadri thermal power plant, using it as a raw material in brick kilns and in construction of a highway.

In the meeting, EPCA member Sunita Narain, the chief of Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), expressed concern on the

amount of particulate matter and sulphate particles, of plumes from coal-fired plants, in the city’s air.

“The IIT-Kanpur study of the city’s air quality has observed that Delhi’s air has the presence of flyash in it,” she said, while also pitching for the Bawana gas-based power plant to operate in its full capacity.

Bhure Lal also emphasised that the Bawana plant has to start operating its full capacity and directed the authorities concerned to resolve the issues hindering its functioning.

The Delhi Power Department told the EPCA the thermal plant, essentially two of its units of 210MW each, have to function to meet the power needs of South Delhi areas and the peak demand during the summers, which may touch a high of 6600-MW this year.

The NTPC has also prepared a remediation plan to manage around 250 lakh tonnes of flyash present at the site