Polluting power plant to reopen Comprehensive plan to cut deadly particles in city air

BADARPUR Coalfired plant adds dangerous particulate matter to Delhi’s air, to remain open from March 15 to Oct 15

and Control Authority.

It has, however, also proposed closing down Badarpur as a thermal power plant for good by July 2018.

The Delhi power department, which has been asked to submit the closure plan, has maintained that the 705MW coal-based plant needs to operate till the Tughlaqabad sub-station is commissioned to meet the power demand of south Delhi areas.

During the meeting on Monday, power department officials said the thermal plant, essentially two of its units of 210MW each, have to function to meet the peak demand during the summers, which may touch a high of 6,600MW this year.

During that period, the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) will appoint NEERI (National Environmental Engineering Research Institute) to monitor the fly ash pit and the air quality in and around the station. According to the Graded Response Action Plan, the plant will function till October 15, Environment Pollution Prevention and Control Authority member Sunita Narain said.

However, the NTPC-run power plant will be allowed to function subject to a set of conditions, including the emptying of its fly ash pit within a time frame and timely commissioning of the 400-KV Tughlaqabad sub-station by June 2018.

“Once the sub-station is launched, the Badarpur plant will be allowed to operate only if it converts to the use of cleaner natural gas,” Narain said.

The Delhi chief secretary will write to the Union power secretary and the CMD of NTPC to determine a timeframe by which the fly ash pit is to be emptied.

The Environment Pollution Prevention and Control Authority on Monday also lifted the ban on diesel generator sets, after the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) informed that the air quality in the city oscillated between “poor” and “moderate” of late. It, however, said that measures under the graded response system’s “moderate” to “poor” categories, including action against open burning of leaves and construction dust, will be implemented through the year.

A notification on the ban on diesel generator sets, put out by the Delhi government, will lapse on Tuesday. NEWDELHI:A new comprehensive plan to bring down air pollution in the Capital will aim to bring down the annual average of PM2.5 down by 70% to meet the clean air standard.

The plan, which is being drafted by the Supreme Courtappointed Environment Pollution Prevention and Control Authority along with CPCB and DPCC, is slated to be submitted to the top court on Wednesday.

“The three-year annual average, for 2014, 2015 and 2016, of ultrafine PM2.5 in Delhi is 132 microgramme per cubic metre. This needs to be reduced by about 70% to meet the annual standard of 40. The plan will work towards that,” said Anumita Roy Chowdhury, head of CSE’s clean air campaign.

The comprehensive plan will take more stringent actions against combustion sources like vehicles, industry, power plant and waste burning.

“These combustion sources are more toxic in nature. However, each and every source of pollution in Delhi will be addressed in the plan with short, medium and long term measures. Appropriate action will also be taken against dust sources,” she said.

This new plan is based on a 2012 blueprint prepared by the Sheila Dikshit government along with facets of the 42-point action plan of the Union environment ministry and EPCA’s own action plan. “The February 2012 plan included features like increasing the city’s bus fleet to 15,000, setting up of 14 BRT corridors by 2016, introducing variable time-based parking rates, increase road tax on private vehicles and an early roll out of Euro VI emission standards,” a government official said. NEW DELHI: A man has been sentenced to life imprisonment by a Delhi court for murdering his mother-in-law over a property matter in northwest Delhi’s Narela village.

Avdesh strangled 75-year-old Devi to death on August 8, 2016, as he felt she was a hindrance in the transfer of a plot to his name by his wife. According to the prosecution, after the death of her first husband, the complainant, Radha, married Avdesh. He allegedly pressured her to transfer the property to his name left to her by her late husband.

During the trial, the man denied the allegations against him and claimed that the property was purchased by him in his wife’s name in 2010. HTC