The Gujarat Pollution Control Board has slapped yet another notice on the Gujarat State Electricity Corporation Ltd (GSECL) for the emission of toxic gases from its thermal power station (TPS) located in Sector 30 of Gandhinagar .
A senior GPCB official said the notice was issued after it was found during the recent monitoring of ambient air quality here. The TPS had emitted toxic gases like NO2 and SO2, thus violating the prescribed RSPM (respiratory suspended particulate matter) limit of 100.
“This is the second notice we have issued to the GSECL this year for violating the air pollution norms set by the Central guidelines for thermal power stations in all states. The GPCB is helpless as the GSECL is also a state-owned power company,” the official said. He said the worst part was that the task force set up by the government to effectively monitor and review the implementation of a comprehensive "air pollution action plan" chalked out by the GPCB for Gandhinagar has not met for the last six months. The task force comprises officials from the various government departments and has been mandated to meet every three months.
Gandhinagar District Collector Sanjeev Kumar said: “I took only this April. I am planning to call a meeting of the task force by this month end.”
The GSECL's 870 MW capacity thermal power plant comprising five units on the Sabarmati riverbanks in Gandhinagar has a total coal consumption of 11,000 MTs per day, generating over 10 lakh MTs of fly ash every year. The action plan has suggested that GSECL should upgrade and modernise its Gandhinagar plant.
A senior engineer at the power plant said that at least two units of 120 MW capacity each had not been upgraded since they were installed in the 70s, and that these needed to be modernised without any further delay. “The government has said that orders have been placed for the purchase of new machinery from BHEL to upgrade these two units under a Centre-aided scheme. We are waiting for it," he said. Prof Ravindra Dave of the Gandhinagar Jagrut Nagrik Parishad, a local NGO set up by retired senior bureaucrats, said: “I had approached the High Court with a plea to direct the GSECL and GPCB authorities to check air pollution and also the menace of fly ash being released from the Gandhinagar thermal power plant. The High Court had directed the authorities concerned to control air pollution. But, nothing is being done in this regard.”
Dave, himself a resident of Sector 30, where the powerplant is located, said that among all other sectors in the Capital township theirs is the worst affected by air pollution and fly ash released from the TPS. He said several residents have sold off their houses at throwaway prices and shifted to other sectors.
He said the Parishad had resolved to take up the issue with the Bhurelal Committee set up by the Supreme Court to deal with air pollution. “I am drafting a memorandum to be handed over to the Committee when its members are due to visit the state to review the situation,” he said.
Courtesy : www.expressindia.com
A senior GPCB official said the notice was issued after it was found during the recent monitoring of ambient air quality here. The TPS had emitted toxic gases like NO2 and SO2, thus violating the prescribed RSPM (respiratory suspended particulate matter) limit of 100.
“This is the second notice we have issued to the GSECL this year for violating the air pollution norms set by the Central guidelines for thermal power stations in all states. The GPCB is helpless as the GSECL is also a state-owned power company,” the official said. He said the worst part was that the task force set up by the government to effectively monitor and review the implementation of a comprehensive "air pollution action plan" chalked out by the GPCB for Gandhinagar has not met for the last six months. The task force comprises officials from the various government departments and has been mandated to meet every three months.
Gandhinagar District Collector Sanjeev Kumar said: “I took only this April. I am planning to call a meeting of the task force by this month end.”
The GSECL's 870 MW capacity thermal power plant comprising five units on the Sabarmati riverbanks in Gandhinagar has a total coal consumption of 11,000 MTs per day, generating over 10 lakh MTs of fly ash every year. The action plan has suggested that GSECL should upgrade and modernise its Gandhinagar plant.
A senior engineer at the power plant said that at least two units of 120 MW capacity each had not been upgraded since they were installed in the 70s, and that these needed to be modernised without any further delay. “The government has said that orders have been placed for the purchase of new machinery from BHEL to upgrade these two units under a Centre-aided scheme. We are waiting for it," he said. Prof Ravindra Dave of the Gandhinagar Jagrut Nagrik Parishad, a local NGO set up by retired senior bureaucrats, said: “I had approached the High Court with a plea to direct the GSECL and GPCB authorities to check air pollution and also the menace of fly ash being released from the Gandhinagar thermal power plant. The High Court had directed the authorities concerned to control air pollution. But, nothing is being done in this regard.”
Dave, himself a resident of Sector 30, where the powerplant is located, said that among all other sectors in the Capital township theirs is the worst affected by air pollution and fly ash released from the TPS. He said several residents have sold off their houses at throwaway prices and shifted to other sectors.
He said the Parishad had resolved to take up the issue with the Bhurelal Committee set up by the Supreme Court to deal with air pollution. “I am drafting a memorandum to be handed over to the Committee when its members are due to visit the state to review the situation,” he said.
Courtesy : www.expressindia.com