: After years of dilly-dallying, the Delhi government has finally decided to permanently shut the capital’s two highly polluting and fuel guzzling coal-based power plants in Rajghat and Badarpur. Besides, it is also planning to present before the NGT a proposal to shut another thermal power plant located at Dadri in Uttar Pradesh.
After the government on Friday urged the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) to consider issuing closure notices to Rajghat Power House (RPH) and Badarpur Thermal Power Station (BTPS), the DPCC will now draft a report on the same, based on which directives are likely to be issued by next week. Experts said locking down RPH will be easier than BTPS as the former is under the Delhi government-owned Indraprastha Power Generation Company Limited (IPGCL). Also, RPH is already temporarily shut since October owing to high pollution levels and expensive power.
“DPCC will be issuing directives to both the thermal power plants for closure. Rajghat plant is under the Delhi government and its power department has shown no objections in permanently shutting it down. But, BTPS is run by Centrally-run NTPC. So, even after the DPCC issues a closure notice, the NTPC will have to implement it,” said Ashwani Kumar, Secretary (Environment and Forest).
Power department officials are positive as they maintain that the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) is “unlikely to object” shutting of BTPS. “NTPC is gradually trying to shut the plant anyway. Out of the five units in it, only one of 210 MW is operational now. The only problem we were facing was to find a way to avoid overloading of transmission lines which are being upgraded,” said Sukesh Jain, Secretary (Power).
Previously, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) had repeatedly found the two plants flouting the pollution norms. The environment department had issued several notices to IPGCL and NTPC for curbing emissions, but to no avail.
