Fly ash slurry floods village, work hit by lockdown, says Tangedco

However, the work to replace 30-km long rusted and worn-out pipelines carrying the fly ash from the plant to the fly ash pond near Seppakkam was hit by COVID-19 lockdown, said Tangedco officials.

On Monday, about 60 families living in Seppakkam woke up to a flood of fly ash slurry following an overnight burst in the pipeline carrying ash to the pond. The villagers, agitated by the inaction of the NCTPS, threatened to leave their residences in protest on Monday following which Kattupalli Panchayat officials and police pacified them.

“We are taking steps to completely remove the fly ash accumulated in the village and also raise the height of the bund and the road to prevent such accidents in the future,” a senior official of the NCTPS said.

National Green Tribunal in August last year had directed the NCTPS to replace the rusted and worn-out five pipelines carrying the fly ash to the ash pond following a report submitted by the Central Pollution Control Board, Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board and IIT Madras.

“We have awarded the contract for replacing all the five pipelines but the work got delayed due to the lockdown. Each pipeline is six km long from the plant to the ash pond. Considering the frequent damages to the pipeline, we have decided to increase the carrying capacity of the pipeline and also use very high quality and expensive pipes. So far we have replaced 1.5 km length of the pipeline out of the total 30 km,” the official said.

The official noted that once all the pipelines were replaced, such leakages would not happen in the future.