The Government has asked the Central and State-owned power plants to supply environment-friendly cost effective fly ash free of cost for construction of roads under the centrally sponsored scheme Pradhan Mantri Gramin Sadak Yojna (PMGSY).
The move aims to promote green technology to save construction cost, preserve environment and cut down impact of climate change.
A senior official from the Union Rural Development Ministry said there are around 145 coal-based thermal plants owned by the States and Centre across the country. Majority of the plants were flushed with the fly ash which has a few takers from the Government and private sectors. It was observed that high cost of transportation was one of the limiting factors restricting the use of fly ash.
The official said that in a meeting held recently between secretaries of Rural Development and Power Ministries, it was noted that fly ash generated by most of the power plants was not being fully utilised.
At the meeting, representatives from the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) also suggested that the conventional construction material can be procured free of cost from the thermal power plants.
The move is among several measures undertaken by the Government in the recent years to promote green technologies.
For instance, “Guidelines of Technology initiatives under PMGSY”, issued by Rural Development Ministry in 2013, already have a provision that a minimum 15 per cent length of annual proposals under the PMGSY received from each State should be based on new or non-conventional materials/technology including, jute and coir geo-textiles.
Similarly, the Union Environment Ministry in a notification early this year has already made it mandatory for the thermal power plants to bear cost of transportation for supplying fly ash within three hundred kilometres to the site of construction works under the PMGSY besides asset creations like construction of dams and buildings.
The notification also says that “concerned authority shall ensure mandatory use of ash-based bricks or products in all Government scheme or programmes e.g. MNREGA, Swachchh Bharat Abhiyan, urban and rural housing scheme, where built up area is more than 1,000 square feet and in infrastructure construction, including buildings in designated industrial Estates or Parks or Special Economic Zone.”
The PMGSY is a Centrally-funded scheme which aims to provide connectivity to all habitations with a population of 500 persons and above in the rural areas and about 250 persons and above in respect of the hilly States, tribal areas and desert areas through good and all-weather roads.