With the Badarpur thermal power plant, which has been closed since November 2016 to curb air pollution, expected to restart operations on Wednesday, environmentalists on Tuesday aired their concerns over the move.
The plant was shut when Delhi experienced an intense smog episode starting November 7, with the Delhi Pollution Control Committee extending the closure into 2017. At a meeting last month, the Supreme Court-appointed Environment Pollution Control Authority had agreed to allow the thermal power plant to reopen from March 15.
Sunil Dahiya, a campaigner with Greenpeace India, said the reopening of the plant apart from being detrimental to Delhi’s air quality, was not required.
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‘Unsustainable’
“Delhi does not need it. The power generated by the plant is not only dirtier in terms of the pollution caused, but also more expensive. The decision to reopen the power station is wrong from the environmental, economic and overall sustainability perspective,” he said.
He added that the recent Annual Generation Target 2017-2018 of the Central Electricity Authority showed that the Badarpur plant would be inefficient.
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“Badarpur is just one example of the larger problem the country is facing with respect to the increasing cost, underutilisation and high pollution from coal-based power generation,” he said.
Others, however, said the plant would be operated as a temporary solution to Delhi’s summer power woes.
Anumita Roychowdhury, the head of the Centre for Science and Environment’s clean air programme, said: “This is a conditional opening to meet the peak summer demand in south Delhi.”
Plant to be monitored
She said the plant, which will be operational till October 15, would be monitored closely.
“The DPCC will maintain a strict control over the emissions and the fly ash would have to be removed. A sub-station is expected to be completed by June 2018, after which the plant will be closed,” she said.