less than a month after slapping shutdown notice against Damodar Valley Corporation's (DVC) 500 MW capacity Koderma Thermal Power Station (KTPS) of Hazaribagh, the Jharkhand State Pollution Control Board (JSPCB) is all set to lift the ban on Tuesday.
The pollution regulator after inspecting the necessary measures taken by the plant operators to check emissions and keep them under the specified norms has decided to allow operation. “I had visited the facilities on May 2. They have complied with the guidelines and instructions passed. Three out of five ash ponds have been built and the rest two are under construction.
The Board will be issuing the order on May 7,” JSPCB chairman Mani Shankar told The Pioneer. The Board had slapped closure notice to the plant; run and managed by the first multi-purpose project of the country; on April 12, 2013 in the want of sufficient number of ash ponds, waste disposal measures. The power station was also found violating various environmental norms that included discharge of slurry directly into the Barakar river and not building the ash-pond for its 1X500 MW trial production plant. This was not in conformity with instruction issued by the Board.
“Today on 12.4.2013 the Board by letter number D-1008 has directed the unit to close its trial production. After the compliance of aforesaid points and based on the regional officer's recommendations the further consent application would be considered,” read the order passed in April. The unit was granted conditional NOC on August 16, 2004 by the Ministry of Forest and Environment for 2X500 power plant and subsequently granted environmental clearance on June 23, 2005.
The first consent letter to the unit was given on January 12, 2012 till April 30, 2013. Though, the consent was not for commercial generation but for synchronizing different components of the unit. The decision had come as double blow for the DVC from the JSPCB. Its Chandrapura Thermal Power Station is also under scanner presently and has been granted few months time to meet the directions.
“We found that the progress made at Koderma is satisfactory. Two ash ponds are under construction. Four pipelines have also been laid. They have assured us to meet other requirements soon,” added Mani Shankar while justifying the granted go-ahead.
Earlier, DVC chairman RN Sen had blamed higher amount of ash content coming with coal for the slurry-laden discharge. “We have doubled the use of coal and ash content has turned four times greater. It is easy to blame but we have to find out solution. DVC is addressing the issues and situation is improving in its various units. We are in talks with JSPCB,” Sen said last month.
