NASHIK: Fly ash in the Eklahare thermal power plant is being used to fill up potholes on the Samruddhi corridor in the Nashik division. Chief engineer of the plant Mohan Awhad informed. The plant was shut for seven months during the lockdown period. The fly ash generation was lowered in this period by 2.52 lakh tonnes. 700-km Samruddhi corridor between Mumbai-Nagpur passes from various districts.
There have been orders to use fly ash from the thermal power plant for filling up the potholes on this corridor. Fly ash from the respective thermal power plant in Nagpur and other divisions to fill potholes on the corridor. A total of 20 lakh tonnes of fly ash from the Eklahare thermal power plant will be used for the Samruddhi corridor which passes via Nashik. A total of 30,000 tonnes of fly ash has been used so far. The Eklahare thermal power plant started on 1200 acres of area in 1970. Presently, there are a total of 750 employees.
Thousands of tonnes of coal arrived for the generation of power by railway freight train daily to generate power. A total of 3500 tonnes of coal is burned daily. 1200 tonnes of fly ash means 40% fly ash is generated by this. An ash pond is constructed on 250 hectares of land to store the fly ash. Currently, its capacity is worth 1.5 tonnes. Currently, 1.25 crore tonnes of fly ash is lying there.
To remove the fly ash in thermal power plants in the state, the state government has made it mandatory to use bricks that are made from fly ash for building construction in the 100-km area of the concerned power plant project. Cement, developers, and brick klin owners take 250 trucks full of fly ash daily free of cost.
Developers from Aurangabad, Mumbai, Pune, and Gujarat also carry the fly ash there. There are thermal power plants at seven places in Maharashtra. There are three generators having a capacity of 660 megawatts at Koradi and two generators having a capacity of 210 megawatts, a single generator having a capacity of 210 megawatts at Bhusaval, while two generators having a capacity of 500 megawatts, three generators having a capacity of 210 megawatts at Nashik, four generators having a capacity of 210 megawatts at Chandrapur, three generators having a capacity of 250 megawatts at Parali, two generators having a capacity of 250 megawatts at Paras, four generators having a capacity of 210 megawatts at Khaparkheda and a single generator having a capacity of 500 megawatts.
They were closed between March to October 2020 due to lockdown. Other thermal power plants in the country were also shut. A total of 1200 tonnes of fly ash is generated at the Eklahare power plant alone. Considering all thermal power plants across the country, the generation of millions of tonnes of fly ash was stopped and the degradation of the environment was avoided.
