The problem that the residents belonging to north Chennai will be facing due to a decision taken by Tangedco!!
The ash generation would increase three times in the north Chennai and this will be making the lives of the residents difficult.
The reason for more ash generation would be due to the decision taken by Tangedco or Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation to shift from 100% imported coal to 50:50 mixture of imported and domestic coal for running 800 MW NCTPS or North Chennai Thermal Power Station.
Point to be noted is that the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change or MoEF&CC has approved an amendment to the Environmental and Coastal Regulation Zone or CRZ clearance for the NCPTS stage 3. It is worth noting that by this approval the Tangedco would be able to revise the coal sourcing strategy and use 1.04 million tonnes per annum or MTA of imported coal and 1.65 MTPA of domestic coal from Kalinga block of Talcher, Mahanadhi and IB valley coal fields etc.
When only imported coal was used, the ash generated was 807 tonnes per day and when the combination of imported and domestic coal used ash generated would be 2209 tonnes per day and that would correspond to nearly three times of ash. It must be noted that Tangedco has committed to 100% dry ash handling and utilisation. Only during emergencies, NCTPS stage 3 would dispose of ash slurry as both fly ash and bottom ash are disposed of in dry form. Instead of constructing new pipelines,Tangedco would use the present ash slurry pipelines of NCTPS stage 1 and 2.
Import coal contact has been awarded by Tangedco to Smartgen Infra for purchasing 24.75lakh tonnes of 4600 GAR imported steam coal for a period from 2024/25 to 2026/27. For 24.75lakh tonnes, total coal procurement cost is Rs 1652.68 cr.
