Muttemwar urges realistic view on thermal plants in Vidarbha

However, this will aggravate the already acute water shortage problem in the region where so far only 30 per cent of total irrigation potential has been developed, Congress MP from Nagpur, Vilas Muttemwar told the Lok Sabha today.

Raising the issue under Rule 377 on the first day of Lok Sabha's winter session, Muttemwar urged the government to take a realistic view of the serious problem of concentration of a large number of environmentally unsustainable thermal power plants in Vidarbha, by reviewing the policy of setting up such a large number of power plants in a single region.

When farmers of the region are already suffering due to lack of irrigation facilities, the state government has been allocating water supply to these new proposed plants and Vidarbha will end up as the most polluted region due to new power plants, he said.

Coal-based power plants are considered the biggest source of air pollution and emit huge quantity of fly ash, as well as toxic materials like mercury, sulphur dioxide and carbon dioxide, he said.

The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) has stipulated approximately one acre of land per MW of installed thermal power capacity for fly ash disposal. Therefore, 132 thermal power plants with a capacity of 86,470 MW will collectively require close to 90,000 acres of fertile land, 3600 cubic metres of water per day, over 18,00,000 tonnes of coal per day and generate 7,20,000 tonnes of ash per day.

These plants will have a cumulative catastrophic impact on natural resources, environment and health of people in the region, Muttemwar said while raising the issue, a release issued by his office said.