New Delhi: NTPC Limited, India's largest power producer, has started collaborating with cement manufacturers across the country to supply fly ash as part of its endeavour to achieve 100 percent utilisation of the by-product produced during power generation. The power producer is leveraging the Indian Railways' sprawling network to transport fly ash in an economical and environment-friendly manner.

In a statement, NTPC said that its Rihand thermal power station is the first plant in the state of Uttar Pradesh to send conditioned fly ash to cement manufacturers. The plant recently transported 3,834 Metric tonnes (MT) of conditioned fly ash in 59 BOXN wagons to Dalmia Cement (Bharat) Ltd's plant at Nagaon, Assam. Earlier, the rail rakes of conditioned fly ash were dispatched to ACC plants in Tikaria (UP), Kymore (MP) and Ropar (Punjab).

Further, during the financial year 2019-20, almost 44.33 MT of fly ash was utilised for various productive purposes. NTPC produces approximately 65 MT of ash annually, out of which 80 percent (approximately 52 MT) is fly ash. Presently, about 73 percent of total ash is being utilised for the production of cement and fly ash bricks, road embankment construction, mine filling, low-lying land development, and ash dyke raising.

The present installed capacity of NTPC Limited is 6,2,910 MW (including 11,755 MW through JVs and subsidiaries), comprising of 70 NTPC stations (24 coal-based stations, 7 combined cycle gas and liquid fuel based stations, 1 hydro based station, 1 wind-based station), 25 Joint Venture stations (9 coal-based and 4 gas based) and 12 renewable energy projects. The company aims to achieve a total installed capacity of 130 GW by 2032.

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