NTPC has developed an infrastructure at Rihand project in UP to transport fly ash in bulk to cement plants, located at distance, at a cheaper cost. The development is in line with NTPC’s commitment towards 100% utilization of fly ash from power plants. The first rake of 59 BOXN type of railway wagons carrying 3450 Metric Tonne (MT) of fly ash was flagged off from NTPC’s Rihand Super Thermal Power station by Balaji Iyengar, Executive Director (NTPC Rihand) for ACC Cement Manufacturing Plant, Tikaria, U.P. located at a distance of 458 kms , in presence of other senior officials of NTPC Rihand.
Lalit Trivedi, GM, East Central Railway and Suresh Rathi, Head Supply Chain, ACC along with his team joined the occasion through video conferencing. To transfer the first tranche, officials from NTPC Rihand approached East Central Railway along with leading cement producers to commence the supply of fly ash in BOXN wagons covered with tarpaulin. The innovation will pave the way for efficient and safer transportation of fly ash from the power plants to cement production units located at a distance in larger quantity.
The effort marks the beginning of a new era for the transportation of fly ash from a remote location to a consumption centre, enabling power plants for upgrading the utilization of fly ash with the availability of additional material loading avenues for Indian Railways and accessibility of fly ash to the cement plants in an environment-friendly manner at a competitive price. During the financial year 2019-20, almost 44.33 million tonnes of fly ash was utilized for various productive purposes, being 73.31% of the ash generated. Moreover, company is looking at new avenues of fly ash management like fly ash based geo-polymer road, use of bottom ash as replacement of fine aggregate (sand) in cement concrete. Also, NTPC has plans to set up fly ash classifier unit for export purposes.
