The stage is set for conducting a public hearing on August 12 on the proposed super critical power plant of the NTPC with a capacity of 4,000 MW (four units of 1,000 MW each) at Pudimadaka village in Visakhapatnam district. The NTPC already has a thermal plant with 2,000 MW capacity at Parawada in Viskhapatnam district in the same area. The AP Pollution Control Board has issued a notification for the purpose.
There is opposition to the conducting of a public hearing from the CPM and certain other sections including some local people, as the proposed plant may adversely affect the livelihood of fishermen in the vicinity by ruining the fisheries resources and also by contaminating the environment. It is said that the adverse effects of the NTPC-Simhadri are already being felt by the local people and another plant in the same area would aggravate the problem.
The Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (APIIC) has handed over 1200 acres of land to the NTPC for setting up the plant and the environment impact assessment report has been prepared by the Vimta Labs, Hyderabad. The plant, using super critical technology, will be run on imported coal and it is estimated that it would require 13.7 million tonnes of coal per annum. It would generate 1.68 MTPA of ash per annum, of which 1.35 MTPA would be fly ash.
The EIA report prepared by Vimta Labs mentions that there would be proper fly ash handling systems and the state-of-art technologies would be used. A desalination plant would be built to make use of sea water. The report states that olive ridley turtles have been sighted near the Pudimadaka beach.
Ch. Narasinga Rao, the CPM leader, said the problems which had arisen in the area due to the NTPC-SImhadri had not been resolved yet. "Fix to six fishermen villages in the area, including Pudimadaka, are now being supplied water by the GVMC as the groundwater has been completely contaminated. All these villages numbering eight would have to be relocated, if a major project with 4,000 MW has to be taken up. The NTPC-SImhadri was initially said to be of 1,000 MW and now the capacity has been doubled. Now Pudimadaka is being planned with 4,000 MW. We will oppose it," he said.
J.V Ratnam, environmental activist, says that there is no mention in the EIA report of what steps would be taken to save the turtles. There is also no attempt to address the concerns of local people regarding pollution.