Bhubaneswar, July 8: Worried over the closure of its units, National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) chairman, Arup Ray Choudhury, today met Orissa chief minister Naveen Patnaik and assured him that all steps would be taken to repair the breach taken place in one of its ash ponds, which caused huge damage at Kaniha in Angul district.
The meeting assumes significance as the State Pollution Control Board (SPCB) ordered closure of four units at the super thermal power plant at Kaniha after it failed to avoid any breach of its ash pond despite repeated cautions.
After serving several notices and directions to the plant authorities earlier, SPCB authorities finally slapped a closure notice on its four units on July 2 due to failure in ash management, which led to recurrent breaches.
This is for the first time that a unit of power major NTPC received closure notice. The power plant provides power to 17 Indian states, including Orissa, who draw about 200 mega watt power from stage -II of the thermal plant as its share. In the stage-I plant, which has 1,000MW installed capacity, the share of Orissa is about 600MW. According to an NTPC source, the closure of the units has serious impact on national grid.
During the meeting with Naveen, NTPC chief, Ray Choudhury reportedly urged him to ask the SPCB to take a lenient view and allow four of its units to operate again. However, the Orissa government did not give any commitment when it would lift its ban, sources said.
After meeting the chief minister, NTPC chairman, Ray Choudhury, said a joint inspection team comprising officials from both NTPC and SPCB would visit the ash pond site every 15 days and inspect the repair work of the ash pond. “With the closure of the units, the southern states have been badly affected and are facing a power crunch. They have already lodged their complaints with the union power ministry and talked to us,” he said. Ray Choudhury further said that 40 per cent repair works of the ash ponds have been completed and the rest would be completed soon. “We have already responded to all the notices issued by the State Pollution Control Board. There was no intention to violate the order of the SPCB,” he said.
SPCB member secretary, Siddhanta Das, said: “NTPC has submitted its action plan to us for examination. They have assured us that they will complete the repair work by August 15. NTPC has tied up with the IIT, Chennai, to look into the repair work of the ash ponds. We will examine the report and take a final decision on revocation of the closer order.”
'As IIT Chennai is a reputed institute, we will look into their report seriously,' said Das.
State forest and environment minister, Debi Prasad Mishra, said NTPC was producing 20,000 tonne of ash ponds every day and they have the carrying capacity up to October 31. “They should explain to us what steps they are going to take for ash control after October. If any further breach takes place, the Samal barrage would be totally destroyed. We have to take care of that,” said Mishra.
