Centre again relaxes SO2 emission norms for coal plants around Delhi-NCR
The order, issued on Saturday, means that of the 600 coal plants that were directed to meet SO2 emissions, only 66 – located within a 10-km radius of Delhi-NCR – will have to comply. The compliance deadline for these plants will be December 31, 2027.
The order effectively exempts several coal plants from installing pollution-cutting flue-gas desulphurisation (FGD) technology, which reduces SO2 emissions from the plant's exhaust gases.
The government's latest order is the fifth deadline extension given to plant operators since the norms were notified in 2015.
Sulphur dioxide, a harmful pollutant, also aids formation of particulate matter that is lethal and can enter the bloodstream.
These 66 plants, termed as 'Category A' plants, are located within a 10-km radius of Delhi-NCR or cities with over a million population as per the 2011 Census.
There are 72 plants in 'Category B' – located within a 10-km radius of critically polluted areas or cities not in compliance with national air quality standards – on whom SO2 norms will be applicable on a 'case to case' basis, the order said.
Meanwhile, over 450 'Category C' plants, which are neither near Delhi-NCR nor near critically polluted areas, have been completely exempted from meeting the sulphur emission norms.
However, they will have to adhere to the stack height criteria and timeline, as prescribed by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the order added.
The order came on the back of multiple studies, as well as recommendations made by a high-powered committee chaired by Principal Scientific Adviser (PSA) Ajay Kumar Sood. The committee had concluded that the installation of FGD was not necessary in all coal plants.
In a report, the National Institute of Advanced Studies submitted to the high-powered committee that Indian coal, used to generate 92% electricity produced by thermal plants, has a low average sulphur content. In fact, it said that FGD installation in all coal plants by 2030 will increase auxiliary power consumption and add more long-lived carbon dioxide emissions, while removing short-lived sulphur dioxide emissions.
All the studies considered by the office of the PSA had instead called for focussing efforts on cutting particulate matter pollution and installing electrostatic precipitators.
The order stated that the CPCB had submitted recommendations after detailed analysis and study of national ambient air quality standards of sulphur dioxide across most regions. It added that the pollution control measures were causing an increase in carbon dioxide emissions as well increasing footprint due to use of limestone, and its transportation.
The order further said that an explicit recommendation has been received from the Ministry of Power about relaxation in timelines to meet norms. '…several stakeholder consultations were done with Industry… Ministry of Power, Central Pollution Control Board, scientific institutions, and other stakeholders regarding these emission standards and their timeline,' it added.
The government had identified 537 coal plant units with a capacity of over 200 Gigawatts (GW) for FGD installation. Of these, the technology has already been installed in 49 units with a capacity of 25 GW, as per data provided by the government in Lok Sabha in March.
Contracts awarded for 211 units (90 GW) and 180 units (58 GW) were under various stages of the tendering process. About 97 units with a capacity of 27 GW were under the pre-tendering process, the government had said.
An award-winning journalist with 14 years of experience, Nikhil Ghanekar is an Assistant Editor with the National Bureau [Government] of The Indian Express in New Delhi. He primarily covers environmental policy matters which involve tracking key decisions and inner workings of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. He also covers the functioning of the National Green Tribunal and writes on the impact of environmental policies on wildlife conservation, forestry issues and climate change.
Nikhil joined The Indian Express in 2024. Originally from Mumbai, he has worked in publications such as Tehelka, Hindustan Times, DNA Newspaper, News18 and Indiaspend. In the past 14 years, he has written on a range of subjects such as sports, current affairs, civic issues, city centric environment news, central government policies and politics. ... Read More
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Gift this article My sons and I have this rhetorical banter… One of us will ask: 'Who is the most difficult person to know?" To which, one of us responds: 'Myself". When people ask me what I do, I often say I write about design, but what I actually write about, is homes. What makes a home the way it is? Why do we shape it the way we do? How do we think about it more deeply? As my mind sifts through the many spaces I've seen these past few weeks and conversations I've had about the topic of home, the conclusion that I've come to is that many folks are unaware of themselves as they begin making homes. It is a performance, our home. So many different types of performance. Performative authenticity. Performative minimalism. My sons and I have this rhetorical banter… One of us will ask: 'Who is the most difficult person to know?" To which, one of us responds: 'Myself". When people ask me what I do, I often say I write about design, but what I actually write about, is homes. What makes a home the way it is? Why do we shape it the way we do? How do we think about it more deeply? As my mind sifts through the many spaces I've seen these past few weeks and conversations I've had about the topic of home, the conclusion that I've come to is that many folks are unaware of themselves as they begin making homes. It is a performance, our home. So many different types of performance. Performative authenticity. Performative minimalism. I just sat through two days of research on the subject of Indian homes. A cascade of information about consumer segments and the sorts of homes people are making across various income groups and cities in the country. In the case of the vast majority of probably 100-plus residences surveyed, I'd say people had done far too much to their dwellings and mostly, and maybe unintentionally, as an act of exhibition. If you don't know yourself, at a very fundamental level, then it's very difficult to make a home that is more than just an illusion. But then we live in a culture that almost demands a performance, because people living authentically is often just inconvenient. Performance of loyalty, of spirituality, of decorum, of cultured-ness, of piety, of filial adoration. Since the group is considered more important than the individual, most of us are forced into some form of acting, even in our own homes. I come from a conservative Christian background but my home is filled with the iconography of other spiritual and religious inclinations, because some of our best craft capabilities are representations of religion, whether its terracotta figurines, Kalighat paintings or Islamic mirror etchings. Several of my family members would not approve of the imbalance of religious representation or the aesthetics of some of my artworks. 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Across a vast spectrum of Indian homes, people are covering up their living room walls with PVC wall panels, wallpaper stickers, tiles, faux wooden fluted panels, veneers, wainscotting, even stone. To paint, it seems, is no longer enough. Though the act of decorating this way is meant to be another tool of personalisation, what such exaggerations achieve is something more complicated. For one thing, these types of additions reduce the size and scale of a space. It also makes for extraordinary complications if there's any water damage or other problems behind the cladding. Many of these off-the-shelf, online-available decor accessories promise to protect your walls, and help people express some level of individualisation. The only problem is, if a lot of people are doing the same exaggerated thing, then everything quickly becomes tired facsimiles mimicking one another. If you're sitting in a space that's been clad with plywood and veneers wall to wall, and perhaps very little furniture in the room, it doesn't make it a minimalist room, it is the performance of minimalism. Living rooms that look like they're stages, allegorical settings for domestic theatre. I've been trying to understand the mindset that gives rise to this feeling that a portion of the room needs to be covered with more material—particularly with unsustainable material. I use words like theatrics and performative-ness quite deliberately. Because with these over-material filled spaces that only convey that we have the resources to use them, we're either performing to the market, which has convinced us we need them, or to the trendsetters, who make us believe this level of customisation is necessary or beautiful. If you're sitting in a space that's been clad with plywood and veneers wall to wall, and perhaps very little furniture in the room, it doesn't make it a minimalist room, it is the performance of minimalism. The alternative, when we're picky with the nature of the materials we use, the economic use of materials itself—that frugality is more meaningful than performing minimalism by using an industrial and unsustainable material. How did we become so scared of walls and paint colour? There's a simplicity and basic-ness to colour and its rendering as a painted material. It is ubiquitous, it is uncomplicated, a fundamental element even, but it is also a frightening, culturally loaded, creative material. To go beyond neutrals is difficult; few do it well. Kerala, the capital of colour-drenched homes, is now largely a neutral hue-loving state. Peruse the pages of the Malayalam design weekly Veedu, and you'll see a surfeit of gabled roofs over white-painted quiet walls. The hegemony of neutrals is complete. Colour is a political and classist tool; we've succumbed to Western readings about colour, without even realising it. I was reminded of these structures and its teachings when I saw the coverage of the video where New York mayoral hopeful Zohran Mamdani is doing the most banal thing: eating biryani with his hands. In a lot of the world, including places such as Indonesia, people eat with their hands. Yet, that simple dining etiquette evokes a discussion. Colour is as unusual a political tool as food. We imbibe learnings that we're not even aware of. Traditional Indian aesthetics used colour in the most ingenious ways. One of the chief reasons I love south Indian clay figurines is because of their radical, confident use of colour. The colour-blocking is crazy and brilliantly contemporary. Few designers today are able to achieve that sort of range and hue-partnership in a space. Also read: Workspace evolution: Gen Z inspires new office design trends The reliance on new-tech products that pretend to look like various types of wood, is meant to save us from difficult choices. But the conditions of most Indian cities are such that the more complicated the home becomes, the more difficult its long-term survival. Say with cladding, there's moisture and the evil that it will unleash, the visible traces of dust, and it becomes that much more complicated to change your mind—unlike a wall with colour; if you want to change it then you change it. We change with time, with homes, with experiences, the people we are today are not the same as the ones we'll see in the mirror in a few years. Our homes have to be able to imbibe that. But that means we need to understand who we are at any point in time, to understand also what we are doing to the overall landscape, to our environment. What are your essentials? What do you need? Where do you want to begin? How will your space accommodate the many versions of you? These are the most important questions to begin with, when you're starting the work on a home. If you don't attempt to answer those then you'll end up helming yourself in with elements you don't actually need. Manju Sara Rajan is an editor, arts manager and author who divides her time between Kottayam and Bengaluru. Topics You May Be Interested In
