GAIL moots shutting of coal based power plants near metros

The company is planning to switch to cleaner gas as a source of electricity generation

Amidst raging debate over rising levels of air pollution, state-owned GAIL India today mooted shutting down of coal-based power plants near metro cities and switch to cleaner gas as a source of electricity generation.

GAIL Chairman and Managing Director B C Tripathi said besides Badarpur power plant in Delhi, the nearby Dadri station too needs to be shut.

"All thermal (coal) based plants in big cities and metros have to be looked into (for closure)," he said at the World Energy Policy Summit here.

Delhi, the world's most polluted city, last week decided to shut down the Badarpur and Rajghat thermal power stations to check pollution.

It also plans to restrict the number of cars on its roads by implementing license-plate based driving bans -- allowing vehicles with license plates ending with odd and even numbers to ply on alternate days starting January 1.

"Badarpur is second most inefficient plant in the country," Tripathi said adding if it can be shut, so can Dadri power station of NTPC in the neighbouring Ghaziabad district.

He also cited the presence of a 30 year old coal-based power plant near Mumbai as an example of polluters that need to be looked at.

Delhi, he said, also has a gas-based power plant at Bawana which is shut. "Bawana is most efficient plant in the country but it is shut."

Starting Bawana does not need gas but a policy framework that encourages use of cleaner fuel and allows absorption of electricity generated from it in the system, he said.

"We need to have a clear cut integrated policy," he said adding CNG network in the national capital was operating at one-third of capacity, implying not all were using the cleaner fuel for cooking and transportation purposes.

He said until power sector reforms are initiated, 25,000 MW of idling capacity cannot be brought into the system.

"There also has to be some kind of penalty for polluting fuels," he said adding power generation from diesel or other liquid fuels should be discouraged.

Crude oil, which is considered a pollutant, is allowed to be imported duty free in the country. In contrast, a 5 per cent import duty is levied on natural gas - a cleaner and less polluting fuel.

Natural gas attracts 25 per cent sales tax and states like Madhya Pradesh levy on natural gas, he said adding the landed price of imported liquefied natural gas (LNG) of $8 per million British thermal unit becomes $12 for customers mostly because of central and state taxes.

"As a country we have not been able to manage gas properly," he said.