State’s 2 thermal power units flout environmental laws on fly ash: CAG
Sushil Manav
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, March 18
A report by the CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General) has revealed two power plants - Deenbandhu Deenbandhu Chhotu Ram Thermal Power Plant (DCRTPP), Yamunanagar and Rajiv Gandhi Thermal Power Plant (RGTPP), Khedar (Hisar), failed to utilise fly ash as per the Ministry of Environment and Forests guidelines (MoEF), thereby, causing pollution besides losing combined additional revenue of Rs 225 crore.
According to the CAG report, tabled in the Assembly on Monday, R-Infra, a company of Reliance group was given the contract to set up Ash Handling Plant (AHP) – one for dry ash (80 percent) and the other for wet bottom ash (20 percent). The dry ash was to be evacuated through Ash Silo and disposed off as per the MoEF guidelines.
The company entered into contract with cement manufacturing firms and collected administrative charges for the dry fly ash lifted. However, the CAG report observed the evacuation system set up at the DCRTPP lacked enough capacity to handle dry ash, thereby, generating wet bottom ash causing harm to environment.
Of the 23 lakh MT fly ash generated, the plant generated revenue worth Rs 28.90 crore by evacuating only 7.33 lakh MT in dry mode during 2010-15 which was merely 14 to 53 percent in different years. The plant incurred revenue loss of Rs 61.76 crore as it failed to utilise the remaining 15.67 lakh MT of dry ash.
The dry ash evacuation systems for both the units at the RGTPP, Khedar (Hisar), were commissioned in November 2011 after a delay of 11 months. However, the fly ash evacuated in dry mode ranged between 2 to 36 percent between 2012 and 2014.
Though the company earned Rs 33.72 crore from 2010 to 2015, it lost additional revenue of Rs 140.23 crore due to inadequate utilisation.
The CAG observed that due to inadequate utilisation, fly ash had to be evacuated in wet mode which necessitated the increase in height of ash dyke at a cost of Rs 25.04 crore.
As per the EPC contract, this cost was to be recovered from R-Infra, but it was not done.
