BHUBANESWAR: THE Odisha State Pollution Control Board (OSPCB) has directed Vedanta Limited for partial closure of its power plants over ash pond breach at Katikela in Jharsuguda district where the company’s aluminium smelter as well as power generation facilities are located.
The aluminium manufacturer has been directed to shut down five units of its captive as well as independent power plants (IPP) for at least seven days.
According to OSPCB, Vedanta Alumnium will have to close down three units of the captive power plant (CPP), each having a capacity of 135 mw. Similarly, two 600 mw each unit of the IPP will have to be shut down too. The CPP capacity of Vedanta stands at 1,215 mw whereas the IPP capacity is 2,400 mw.
“The Board has asked the company to come back with concrete plans after which we will assess how much ash these units are generating and take a call on the future course of action,” Member-Secretary, OSPCB Devidutt Biswal said.
After the August 28 ash pond breach, the Board had estimated that a massive 42,24,000 tonne of ash slurry had flown into Bheden river and nearby paddy fields causing huge damage to local environment. On September 5, OSPCB had served a show cause notice on the company asking it to explain why consent for the smelter and power generation facilities should not be withdrawn and closure be directed.
Having slapped with the partial closure direction, Vedanta on Thursday communicated the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) that the remaining six units of the CPP have been permitted to operate till October 12 while the two remaining IPP units can operate till September 20.
The OSPCB has asked Vedanta for compliance of certain conditions with concrete plans within five days. The aluminium company informed SEBI that the closure may require a temporary power purchase upto 200 mw which will have a marginal impact on cost of production of aluminium. “The company expects to be able to sustain the smelter capacity without affecting its production volume,” it said.
Vedanta’s Jharsuguda smelter facility capacity stands at 1.6 million tonne per annum.
During its inspection, the pollution control board had found that the facilities are left with no space for disposal of fly ash generated after the mishap.After the breach of the ash pond, concentration of total suspended solids (TSS) content in the downstream of the site in Bheden river was measured at a massive 2,812 mg/litre against 66 mg/litre observed in the upstream.