The Korba Municipal Corporation (KMC) will be supplying treated wastewater generated from the city for use by NTPC’s Thermal Power Station, official sources informed.
Notably, two key water supply projects under Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) scheme had been taken up with one each in Korba at Rs 145 crore and at Bhilai involving a cost Rs 104 crores in Chhattisgarh, the Central Government has informed.
Notably, the Chhattisgarh government will get a Detailed Project Report (DPR) prepared for implemention of AMRUT project in the State.
The Central Government had recently sanctioned proposals worth Rs 2200 crore for drinking water facility, sewerage, afforestation and children's parks. The civic authorities had completed 24 of the 28 projects in the urban limits. The project covers Digital India programme also, officials informed.
The municipal authorities had collected 90 per cent of the water cess which is a record in itself. It may be mentioned here that Chhattisgarh State had bagged several national awards in the year 2016, they informed.
Notably, as many as 27 water supply projects to be taken up across Chhattisgarh under Centre’s AMRUT project would involve an expenditure of 440.95 crore during the current financial year.
The Centre’s funding component in the project would be Rs 212.13 crore while Chhattisgarh would contribute Rs 137.08 crore with Urban local Bodies (UlBs) share being Rs 91.38 crore, offcials stated.
Overall the Mission Thrust areas under AMRUT Project would be — Water supply, Sewerage and Septage Management, Storm Water Drain, Pedestrian, Non Motorised and Public Transport Facilities, Parking Space, Green Spaces, Park and Recreation centres.
Notably, the Chhattisgarh government has approved Rs 13 crore for 89 developmental works to be undertaken by Raipur Municipal Corporation (RMC).
Notably, a sum of Rs 10 crore has been approved by the State government for various wards of RMC including drain construction, road widening, electrification and pipeline extension, according to an official press release
Besides these, around Rs 2.50 crore has been approved for setting up a world class gym in the vacant space at International Swimming Pool at GE road besides other facilities.
The Union Ministry of Urban Development has already released Central Assistance of Rs 1,062.27 crore to 13 States as first installment under AMRUT project for the current financial year, officials stated.
This is a part of total Central Assistance of Rs 5,311.38 crore committed to 13 States for which the Ministry has approved Atal Mission Action Plans for 2015-16 entailing total investment of Rs.11,671.76 cr in 286 cities in these states.
The Ministry has so far cleared a total of 939 projects for 286 cities with most of them related to water supply and sewerage network services.
AMRUT project launched in June this year aims at ensuring water supply connections and sewer connections to all urban households in 500 mission cities besides supplying water at the norm of 135 litres per capita per day, on priority. Under this mission, construction of storm water drains, promotion of non-motorised urban transport, provision of parks and green spaces also will be supported.
The purpose of AMRUT is to ensure that every household has access to a tap with assured supply of water and a sewerage connection, increase in amenity value of cities by developing greenery and well maintained open spaces (parks) and reduce pollution by switching to public transport or constructing facilities for non-motorized transport (like walking and cycling).
The cities identified for AMRUT mission are-- Raipur, Bilaspur, Durg, Bhilai, Rajnandgaon, Korba, Raigarh, Ambikapur and Jagdalpur, said official sources.
The State Urban Administration and Development Department will soon take up the integrated solid waste management project planned for the city.
The project would be taken up and operated under Public Private Partnership (PPP) model on Design, Build , Finance, Operate and Transfer basis, officials stated.
NTPC ltd had recently undertaken a comprehensive Ecological Monitoring Programme at Korba besides its five other key stations through Satellite Imagery studies covering an area of about 25 kms radius , officials informed.
The studies have been conducted through National Remote Sensing Agency (NRSA), Hyderabad at its power stations at Ramagundam, Farakka, Korba, Vindhyachal, Rihand and Singrauli.
These studies have revealed significant environmental gains in the vicinity areas of the project as a result of pursuing sound environment management practices.
Some of these important gains which have been noticed are increase in dense forest area, increase in agriculture area, increase in average rainfall, decrease in waste land etc.
In general, the studies, as such, have revealed that there is no significant adverse impact on the ecology due to the project activities in any of these stations. Such studies conducted from time to time around a power project have established comprehensive environment status at various post operational stages of the project.
NTPC has conducted several geohydrological studies of the ash disposal areas at its projects (Singrauli, Rihand, Vindhyachal, Korba, Farakka and Talcher) through reputed institutions like Indian Institutes of
Technology, Roorkee; Indian Institutes of Technology, Mumbai, Centre for Studies on Man and Environment, Calcutta.
All these studies conclude that the leaching of heavy metals from ash occurs only under pH 4 or below.
In practice, the pH of the ash water is either neutral or alkaline (7 or above) and hence the leaching of heavy metals is highly unlikely.
It may be recalled that NTPC is also expected to commence coal production from Talaipalli block in Raigarh district by November 2019, official sources informed.
The company had been granted bridge linkage for seeking coal supply from the Talaipalli block by the Union Coal Ministry.
The scheduled date of start of coal production from the coal block as per the Coal Mines Development and Production Agreement is financial year 2019-20.
Notably, the power to be generated by upcoming NTPC ltd’s 1600 MW Super Thermal Power Project (STPP) at lara in Raigarh district will be supplied to Chhattisgarh , Goa and Maharashtra states, officials stated. The project is most likely to go on stream by March 2017 , officials stated.
The coal requirement for the proposed plant would be met from Talaipalli Coal Block of Mand in Raigarh Coalfields, they stated.
It may be recalled that NTPC’s upcoming lara STPP in Raigarh district of Chhattisgarh has acquired all necessary clearances from the Union Ministry of Forest, Environment and Climate Change for the project, officials stated.
The lara plant of NTPC would be utilising super critical technology for power generation.
Notably, the Union Ministry of Coal has also assured Coal India ltd (CIl) for getting Mand-Raigarh railway line project expedited to facilitate growth in offtake of coal from mines under South Eastern Coalfields ltd (SECl) in Chhattisgarh.
This was against the target of 123.89 million tonnes (MT) - a growth of 11.1 per cent.
Notably, SECl is targetting total coal production of 250 million tonnes (MT) from its underground and open cast mines by 2019-20, officials stated.
SECl recorded coal production (provisional) of 12.10 million tonnes (MT) against target of 11.70 MT as on February 2016, Coal India ltd (CIl) informed the Bombay Stock Exchange in its filing.
Notably, the Coal India ltd (CIl) is targetting production of 1 billion tonnes of coal by 2020.
Wagon availability will be a key factor for achieving this target by Coal India ltd, officials stated.
By signing of the MoU, the Railways and Coal India ltd will be entering into a strategic partnership which would ensure adequate wagon availability for meeting the transportation needs of coal produced by Coal India ltd.
Notably, the Central government has also signed a Memorandum of Understanding each with the states of Odisha, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh for critical coal connectivity projects to improve transportation of coal, officials informed.