Report by OD bureau; Bhubaneswar: Create Concern and awareness for utilization of Fly Ash instructed Chief Secretary Bijay Kumar Patnaik while presiding over high level committee meeting on utilization of Fly Ash, Blast Furnace Slag and Coal Washery Rejects held in secretariat conference hall last day. The committee discussed about different ways and means for utilization of Fly Ash generated through the process of thermal power production.

Discussions in the meeting reveal that the fly ash generation is likely to touch 21 MT in coming years for which there is a necessity to create more concern and awareness about safe utilization of fly ash. The Committee has identified different ways and means for its utilization without creating any harm to environment and human being. The identified means are Road Construction, Mine Void Filling, Low Laying Land reclamation, Cement manufacturing, Soil Conditioning in agricultural field and raising the dyke height of ash ponds. 

Available data shows the utilization rate of fly ash has shown an increasing trend. In the year 2005-06 & 2006-07 around 28%  of the total fly ash generated could be utilized. In this year around 12 MT fly ash was generated from thermal power plants. The utilization rate increased to 35% in 2008-09, 44% in 2009-10 and 50% in 2010-11. Chief Secretary Sri Patnaik has directed concerned agencies to make all out effort for 100% utilization of Fly Ash. Sri Patnaik has also instructed to promote use of fly ash in different  types of construction works.

Filling of Mining and quarrying voids has been considered as a major mean of utilization of fly ash. As such major Thermal Power Stations have been allotted different mine  voids for filling up. Talcher Thermal Power Station ( TTPS) has been allotted voids of Blanada mines for filling with fly ash, Navabharat Ventures Ltd has been allotted Balanda Mines, NTPC Kaniha has been allotted Jagannath Colliery Quarry- 8 , Bhusan Steels Ltd has been allotted Jagannath Colliery-4 and NALCO has been allotted Bharatpur Colliery.

The scientists of National Fly Ash Mission present in the meeting made it clear that chemically Indian Fly ash are quite safe for use as a fill material. Successful  field experiments to this effect has also been done in Odisha. Some public and private low laying areas have been reclaimed from July,2007 to March,2010. Some such important places are filling up of the ground of IDCO Common Facility Center at Jajpur, Saraswati Sisu Mandir, Jajpur, Police Parade Ground, many private sites in Jajpur Road and abandoned laterite Mine, Korabandi. Chief Secretary has asked Industries Dept to tag factories to fill up quarrying voids.

Discussion on Use of Fly Ash in construction of National State Highways and other roads figured in the meeting. The matter was thoroughly discussed. Chief Secretary directed to initiate the process for inclusion of fly ash as a substitute of earth in schedule of rates. Sri Patnaik has instructed the Works Department to constitute a technical working committee taking engineers and fly ash experts from different departments and put their suggestions to core committee for final decision within 2 months.

The Thermal Power Stations have been instructed to promote fly ash brick making. The department has been asked to set up a quality control mechanism for fabrication of fly ash. It has been decided in the meeting that use of earthen brick will be prohibited very soon with the increase in production of fly ash. Chief Secretary Sri Patnaik has also advised the department to prepare a road map for shifting from earthen brick to fly ash brick.  It has been decided that all the thermal power plants will be asked to set up cement plants for utilization of fly ash in production of cement. The Proposal for using of fly ash for soil conditioning in agricultural filed was discussed in details. It was decided that a core committee will be constituted by Agriculture department involving the scientists from Fly Ash Mission, Odisha University of Agriculture and other stake holders to examine all the details. It has also been decided that an expert committee will be formed to examine the possibility of using fly ash in irrigation embankments.

Chief Secretary has instructed that the technical and scientist committees should submit their reports within 3 months. Development Commissioner R.N.Senapati, Secretary Forest & Environ. R.K.Sharma, Secretary R.D.Sri S.N.Trpathy, Secretary Steel & Mines Sri Rajesh Verma, Head , Fly Ash Mission Dr Vimal Kumar, Member Polution Control Board Sidhant Dash along with other senior officers participated in deliberations.