Ramco Cements gets green nod to expand power plant in TN

The Centre has given environment clearance to the Chennai-based Ramco Cements for expansion of its captive power plant at Alathiyur in Tamil Nadu at a cost of about Rs 21.42 crore.
The company has proposed augmenting of the power generation capacity of the Captive Power Plant (CPP) at Alathiyur by adding 6 mw turbines based on air-cooled condensers, taking the total power generation to 42 mw.
"The Environment Ministry today gave green clearance to the Ramco Cement's proposal to expand the Alathiyur power plant capacity," a senior government official said.
The clearance has been given to the project subject to certain conditions. The cost of the project is estimated to be Rs 21.42 crore, the official said.

As per the proposal, the company will use imported coal from Indonesia in CPP. The coal supply agreement was made in July 2014 with Devendral Coal International for the uninterrupted imported coal supply.
At present, 490 tonnes per day (TPD) coal is used and on augmentation additional 80 TPD will be required, therefore a total of 570 TPD will be required for generating 42 mw power.

Among the conditions specified, the company has been asked to use coal with sulphur and ash content not exceeding 0.8 per cent and 14 per cent, respectively.
The company has been asked to control fugitive emission of fly ash so that no agricultural and non-agricultural land is affected.

That apart, it also has to install high Efficiency Electrostatic Precipitators (ESPs) to ensure that particulate emission does not exceed as per existing norms.
Ramco Cements has two plants in Tamil Nadu (Alathiyur and Ramasamy Raja Nagar)and one each in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka with a total cement production of about 14.45 million tonnes per annum.
The company produces Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC), Portland Pozzolana Cement (PPC) and Slag Cement (PSC) which are marketed in the brand name of 'RAMCO'.