How retiring old coal plants could save Rs 53,000 cr for power discoms

As on April 30, Indian discoms owed over Rs 1 lakh crore ($13.65 billion) to power generation companies, according to the Ministry of Power data

How can India clean up its environment, get rid of air pollutants and, at the same time, pull its cash-strapped power distribution sector out of colossal debt? A new study suggests that retiring old coal power plants could be an effective strategy to achieve all these aims.

If 54 coal plants that are 20 years or older, located across 11 states, could be shut down over the next two years, it would yield savings of up to Rs 53,000 crore ($7.2 billion) over five years for these states’ electricity distribution companies (discoms), as per a