NTPC develops rail infrastructure at Rihand for transporting fly ash

New Delhi: (Power Sector News) The country's largest power generation company, NTPC Limited, has developed infrastructure at its Rihand project in Uttar Pradesh 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 percent utilisation of fly ash from power plants.

The first rake of 59 BOXN type of Railway wagons, carrying 3,450 metric tonnes (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, UP located at a distance of 458 km, in the presence of other senior officials of NTPC Rihand.

East Central Railway's General Manager Lalit Trivedi and ACC Cement's Head of Supply Chain Suresh Rathi, 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 power plants to cement production units located at a distance in larger quantities.

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 to improve the utilisation of fly ash with the availability of additional material loading avenues from the Indian Railways, ensuring 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 utilised for various productive purposes. Moreover, the 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 Limited has plans to set up a fly ash classifier unit for export purposes.

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