The Modi government has approved a 1.6 GW expansion of Adani’s coal-power plant at Raigarh in central India despite concerns about pollution and excessive coal-truck traffic by locals. Community representatives have alleged that fly ash from the plant, a toxic waste product from the burning of coal, has been dumped on farmland. Official statistics appear to substantiate these claims. This expansion is just the latest in the Adani Group’s colossal agenda to escalate its exploitation of coal in India.
Basic facts and figures
- Project: proposed expansion of Raigarh coal-power plant
- Company: Raigarh Energy Generation Limited (subsidiary of Adani Power Limited)
- Location: Bade Bhandar-Chhotte Bhandar, Pussore, District: Raigarh, Chhattisgarh
- Current capacity: 600 MW
- Proposed expansion: Addition of 2 units of 800 MW each (total expansion of 1.6 GW)
- Total project cost (including cost of existing unit): Rs 16,500 crore (US $2 billion)
- Cost of expansion: Rs 13,600 crore (US $1.6 billion)
Despite local communities registering strong protests on environmental grounds, the Modi government has approved an expansion of 1.6 GW in the generating capacity of an Adani-owned coal-power plant in central India. Added to the existing 600 MW, this will bring the plant’s capacity to 2.2 GW.
The power plant, located in Pussore tehsil (an administrative unit) in the state’s Raigarh district has been mired in controversy due to allegations of pollution caused by improper disposal of fly ash, the toxic residue generated from the burning of coal.
An expert body of the Union Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change (‘the ministry’) recommended the expansion at its meeting of 28 November 2024. The minutes of the meeting, published on 4 December, say that Adani Power Limited has been required to ensure complete disposal of all the fly ash generated, without leaving any residues, as a mandatory condition on the environmental approval. Adani Power has also been required to expeditiously clear all legacy fly ash. No permission has been granted for the construction of additional fly-ash ponds.
The coal requirement of the existing plant is 3.25 million tons per annum (MTPA), which the project proponent has been procuring from state-owned coal mines through e-auction. After the expansion, the coal requirement of the plant will more than double to 6.6 MTPA, which Adani proposes to procure from its proposed mine in Bijahan in the eastern Indian state of Odisha. (See AdaniWatch stories about Bijahan)
Adani Power estimates that it generated 1.282 MT of fly ash in the past financial year at the coal-power plant and has told the ministry that the total quantity of fly ash to be generated by the expanded plant at full capacity will be 3.368 MTPA – an increase of almost three-fold.
The ministry’s expert body, however, did not deliberate upon the environmental impacts to be caused by the additional fly ash that will be generated at the coal-power plant. It appeared to accept Adani Power’s undertaking that the all the extra fly ash generated by the expanded plant will be disposed of as per the regulations set by the Indian government. Adani Power produced its own data (for which there is no official confirmation in the public domain) to say that it has no legacy ash left in the plant except for a small stock lying in the operational ash pond.
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Figures presented to the ministry by Adani Power say that 96.1% of the fly ash generated during 2022-23 was disposed of as per the regulations. This claim is a sharp jump from the figure which was published for the first half of the financial year by the Central Electricity Authority (CEA), the apex electricity advisory body of the Indian government, which said that Adani Power had disposed of only 35.76% of the total fly ash during the first half of the 2022-23 financial year.
The quantity of fly ash produced climbed to 1.282 MT in the financial year 2023-24, of which 87.5% was properly disposed. In the financial year 2021-22, for which CEA data is also available in the public domain, only 37.4% of fly ash was utilised out of the 1.095 MT generated. Data on fly-ash utilisation by power plants for periods beyond the first half of 2022-23 have not been released yet by the CEA.
As earlier reported by AdaniWatch, pollution caused by fly ash was a major issue raised by local communities during the public hearing held in July 2024. They opposed the project, alleging that fly ash generated from the power plant was not being disposed of scientifically but was being dumped on farmland and in public places. Yet the documents pertaining to the approval of the power plant’s expansion do not appear to address this issue.
Adani Power’s reporting of the public hearing referred only to issues such as skill development for local youth, jobs, women empowerment, and health and educational facilities for local communities. Adani Power claimed to have earmarked Rs 41.85 crore (US $4.9 million) as capital cost and Rs 4.57 crore (US $540,000) as recurring annual expenditure for addressing these issues.
The impacts of improper disposal of fly ash were raised with the ministry through a written representation (the sender of which has not been identified in the online documentation). The representation stated that huge amounts of fly ash are released into the environment through the chimneys of power plants despite implementation of best-possible mechanisms. It also argued that fly ash is a significant source of exposure to ‘naturally occurring radionuclides’ that adversely impacts local populations.
Adani Power responded with the following statement: ‘Regular coal analysis, ash, and emissions for radioactive content will be carried out to ensure compliance of EC [environment clearance] & consent order with safety standards.’
The representation also said that pollution was a major issue raised during the public hearing. It says that local communities had vehemently opposed the proposed expansion for various reasons, including current pollution caused by coal transportation and its impact on local water bodies. It added that attendees at the public hearing were worried that the proposed expansion will result in increased pollution and traffic, degrading local agriculture and leading to severe health hazards.
Adani Power reiterated that the key issues raised during the public hearing were ‘related to education, community health, sustainable livelihood, women empowerment, community rural infrastructure development, development of playground for sports etc’ and that an action plan had been prepared to address these issues as well as a mitigation plan to reduce pollution.
Adani Power has not yet installed a Flue-Gas Desulphurization (FGD) system to intercept toxic emissions from the chimney at the power plant. It has told the ministry that installation will be completed by December 2026. However, compliance with this condition may not eventuate following a directive by India’s apex policy-making body, the Niti Aayog, that thermal power plants need not install FGD systems.
The adverse impacts of improper fly ash disposal were starkly visible during a field visit by this correspondent to areas near the thermal plant in 2023. Local communities lamented the adverse impacts on their lives. Public facilities, including schools, eateries, hospitals and water bodies where people routinely bathed, had all been degraded by fly ash.
Adani Power Limited has committed to the ministry that the capital cost for environmental protection measures will be Rs 2,110.33 crore (US $249 million) while the annual recurring cost would be Rs 21.85 crore (US $2.6 million).
The expansion is also likely to affect wildlife in the region as the area is habitat for several species declared as endangered and protected under laws in India. Studies undertaken during the environmental-impact assessment before the expansion indicated the presence of the Indian grey mongoose (Urva edwardsii), Indian fox (Vulpes bengalensis), Indian Giant Squirrel (Ratufa indica), Indian Python (Python molurus) and the Indian Star Tortoise (Geochelone elegans) in the area. A wildlife conservation plan prepared by the project proponent is yet to be approved by the Chhattisgarh government. However, approval for the expansion was granted on the basis of Adani Power’s commitment that a budget of Rs 2.82 crore (US $340,000) has been earmarked for the conservation plan that will be undertaken in a 10-km radius of the project.
Environmental approval for the 600-MW plant was first granted in May 2010 to its previous owner, Korba West Power Company Limited. Adani Power acquired the company through bankruptcy proceedings. The minutes of the expert-body meeting make it apparent that it overlooked the failure of the proponent to comply with conditions imposed upon it when the project was first approved. It seems that current commitments made by Adani Power Limited were sufficient assurance.
To the Board’s allegation that tree-planting on either side of the coal-transportation road, for the purpose of ameliorating pollution, had not been carried out, Adani Power responded that a plan for the trees was pending with the forest department of Chhattisgarh. During this correspondent’s field visit to the project area, it was obvious that not a single tree had been planted along the coal-transportation route. This road cuts through farmland and connects the power plant with the highway. The rail route required for coal transportation is still under construction, while Adani has been granted an extension in the deadline to stop transport of coal by road. In April 2020, the ministry allowed a one-year extension to the deadline by which the project proponent was to end transport of coal on local roads. This new deadline passed some time ago.
A case on environmental pollution which had been pending since 2023 in India’s premier environmental court, the National Green Tribunal, has also been disposed of in favor of Adani Power Limited. The Tribunal filed the suo motu case against various thermal power plants in the Raigarh region based on media reports that trucking of coal to the plants by road ‘was affecting the respiratory illness and contaminating of water bodies and crop land, leading to loss of productivity and blackening of vegetables and paddy’. However, in an order issued on 8 November 2024, the Tribunal not only disposed the case but also waived the compensation, stating that Adani Power has taken ‘firm steps’ to stop pollution through trucking of coal.
