Nalco plunged into an unprecedented crisis due to lack of ash disposal from Angul CPP

Angul:The Nabaratna company Nalco is facing a major crisis due to lack of its ash evacuation from its 1200MW power plant at Angul since July 13 last.It is because agitations at Bharatpur mine by Talcher Surakhya manch stalling the ash pipe line and coal movment by train.If the strike is not resolved within short period the NALCO POWER PLANT will be forced to close.

Nalco authorities said that out of ten 120MW units in Captive Power Plant(CPP) Nalco runs around 8 units per day to feed its smelter power plant and colony demand.But now the power generation has come down to a little more than 500MW per day due to non-disposal of ash from the power plant.It is because

From 13^th July, there has been a strike at Talcher by Talcher Surakhya manch which blocked evacuation of fly ash through slurry pipe line which draws slurry from Nalco CPP to Bharatpur coal mine.Due to strike the coal supply from Bharatpur coal mine through Merry Go Round(MGR) came to a grinding hault since July 13.

In the meantime,the Regional Pollution Control Board officials here after inspecting the two ashponds of the CPP has  recommended to member secretary not to release any ash into the ash pond furthermore and stop operations of captive power plant which is vital to run the Nalco Smelter plant.Production of power from CPP has meanwhile drastically slashed from more than 800MW to around 500MW now  forcing the company to import 300MW of power from state Grid.

Talcher Surakshya mancha president Murali Sahoo sahoo said Nalco has failed to provide contractual appointement to 80 persons who have lost their land in the pipe line.So the land oustees have waged a strike paralysing the train movement of the coal and slurry pipe line.