Odisha moots fly ash brick clusters

The Odisha government is in the process of devising a detailed project report (DPR) for promoting fly ash brick units in a cluster approach. As many as 2230 prospective entrepreneurs have shown interest to set up fly ash utilisation units and have filed EM-1(entrepreneur memorandum) for the purpose.

"I would request to identify the districts where more people have shown interest to start fly ash based units and arrange to prepare a DPR to develop induced clusters in such districts", Panchanan Dash, secretary MSME department, wrote to Director of Industries.

On the basis of DPR, steps will be taken for identification of land and providing other infrastructure facilities for setting up of the clusters. Stressing on the cluster based approach for establishment of fly ash units, Dash said", It may be a problem to relocate the existing units, but it would be easier to facilitate establishment of new units in the designated cluster."

At present, 25 million tonnes of fly ash is generated annually from the thermal power plants operating in the state. Out of this, about 62 per cent (15.5 million tonne) is utilized in various activities such as manufacturing of construction materials, filling of mine voids, low lying areas and abandoned quarries.

In 2013-14, around 1.1 million tonne of fly ash was used in manufacturing of bricks, representing 4.1 per cent of the total utilisation.

The power grade coal in Odisha contains about 40 - 48 per cent ash and the fly ash generation is 7-9 tonne per day per Mw.

In 2013, the state government had decided that fly ash bricks confirming to relevant BIS (Bureau of Indian Standards) specifications will be used in the construction of all government buildings located within a radius of 100 kms of fly ash generating units.