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Pandemic sets back Delhi govt’s bus procurement project by a year

The demand for more buses assumes more importance now as the 2,000 buses presently plying are allowed to carry only 20 passengers each due to social distancing norms against the usual capacity of 40. The Delhi government’s project to strengthen the Capital’s public transport system by adding a new bus fleet has been adversely affected by the nationwide lockdown imposed to contain the spread of Covid-19 as the procurement and arrival of more than 2,800 buses is set to be delayed by almost a year due to revenue shortfall and limitations in manufacturing, according to senior government officials. The demand for more buses assumes more importance now as the 2,000 buses presently plying are allowed to carry only 20 passengers each due to social distancing norms against the usual capacity of 40. The average daily ridership of Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) before the lockdown was around 4 million. The Delhi government on July 11 last year announced its final procurement plan for 4,000 buses -- all of which should have arrived maximum by this month, according to the schedule shared by the authorities at that time. Ten months later, 1,150 buses including 1,000 non-AC standard-floor and 150 AC low-floor buses, are plying on Delhi’s roads. Transport minister Kailash Gahlot said the government’s procurement schedule of the 1,000 DTC buses, 1,000 electric buses and 1,000 low-floor CNG buses could now take one full year to be completed. He said in the best-case scenario, a first batch (100 or so) of the remaining 2,850 buses could arrive only by the end of this year. “The delay will not just be because of the financial constraints we are facing at the moment, but also because of problems faced by bus manufacturers owning to the lockdown. Thankfully, we at least received all of the 1,000 CNG standard-floor buses before the lockdown began on March 25,” Gahlot said. The government was to receive about 100 AC low-floor buses from JBM Auto Ltd. in April. But they could not arrive because the lockdown got extended. “Even though the restrictions have been relaxed , these buses, even if they arrive in Delhi, cannot be used because they are BS-IV vehicles and could not be registered by April 30, the deadline set by Supreme Court for the registration of BS-IV vehicles,” said one of the officials cited above. Bus manufacturer JBM Auto Limited said it is awaiting directions from the government with regard to the registration of BS-4 buses that was delayed due to the lockdown, so that their buses can be put to use. “The company re-opened its plant in Kosi only a week ago and that it is facing shortage of manpower. We are working only on one shift as there is very limited manpower. Many of our workers are in their home towns. Only maintenance work is being carried out as of now. A few people have been issued passes in our plant by the UP government to comply with the Covid-19 guidelines,” said Nishant Arya, Executive Director, JBM Group. Delhi has a fleet of 6,487 buses of which more than 2,000 are being used for public transport and around 1,400 are on Covid- 19 duty. A reason for not being able to run the remaining buses is that the drivers and conductors who live in NCR cities such as Noida, Gurugram, Ghaziabad or Faridabad are facing issues in reaching the depots due to border restrictions by UP and Haryana According to a second senior official cited above, the lockdown forced DTC to ask finance department to utilise funds (amounting to Rs 325.5 crore and meant to meant for procuring 1,000 AC low-floor buses) to pay salaries to its employees in the coming months if its financial situation does not improve. The main components of DTC’s operating cost are wages and salaries, accounting for around 60%, fuel (CNG), which accounts for nearly 20%, and annual maintenance (nearly 10%). With public transport shut for more than 50 days and schools closed, DTC is losing more than Rs 2 crore every day in revenue from bus journeys -- who us saying this. To foot the bills for salaries, pensions, statutory and other liabilities, DTC utilised Rs 512.50 crore, which the Delhi government disbursed to the corporation as grant-in-aid for the first quarter of 2020-21. According to the Delhi economic survey 2018-19, the working losses of DTC were Rs 1,750.37 crore. A fresh tender for 1,000 electric buses also could be floated not before July, a third official said. The officials said restrictions in the number of passengers in public transport will continue till things normalise. Delhi Metro, which carries around 2.7 million passengers daily, is also shut, putting extra load on DTC. Anumita Roychowdhury, executive director at the Centre for Science and Environment, said there could be some learnings from the challenge. “Social distancing rules have given an opportunity to explore ways of decongesting public transport for the future. Even when the Metro opens, it would not suffice because of the new rules. So, the government must use whatever resources are available. Hiring private buses immediately is need of the hour,” she said.

70% thermal power capacity to miss emission control norms: CSE study

The report comes at a time when India has opened doors for private investors for commercial coal mining and sale in open market In the case of PM, 7 GW of thermal capacity is compliant, while upgrades are underway in another 14 Gw. The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) has observed in a recent study that close to 70 per cent of India's coal-based power generation will miss the emission norms that were to be met by 2022. The report comes at a time when India has opened doors for private investors for commercial coal mining and sale in open market. Also, recently, as this paper reported, the Central government is also planning to do away with mandatory washing of coal before it is transported to thermal plants to reduce emissions. "Our assessment finds that even after seven years since the notification and even after the agreed five-year extension given to this sector in 2017, most of the installed coal-fired capacity will not be compliant with crucial sulphur dioxide (SO2) standards by 2022,” said Sunita Narain, director general, CSE, said India introduced new emission and water use norms for the coal-based thermal power units in 2015. The deadline suggested then was December 2017. CSE pointed out that the thermal power industry “began a sustained campaign to first obstruct and prevaricate, and then to dilute and delay the implementation of the norms.” After missing that deadline, the new target has now been set to 2022 for the implementation of the emission norms. When implemented, the norms can lead to a significant reduction in emissions and dip in water use by the sector, said CSE in its report titled, ‘Coal-based power norms: Where do we stand today’. Major pollutants from coal-fired thermal power plants are oxides of nitrogen (NOx), sulphur dioxide (SO2) and particulate matter (PM). Thermal power units are also extremely water-intensive. Estimates by CSE indicate, thermal units are responsible for 70 per cent of the total freshwater withdrawal by all industries. They also account for over 60 per cent of total industrial emissions of particulate matter; 45 per cent of SO2; 30 per cent of NOx; and more than 80 per cent of mercury, in the country. In the case of PM, 7 GW of thermal capacity is compliant, while upgrades are underway in another 14 Gw. In the case of SO2, 16 GW capacity has complied; 32 GW has awarded tenders; 125 GW is still at the preliminary stages of feasibility study and tenders; and another 9 GW has no plans for installation. It is highly unlikely for units still at preliminary stages or with no plan to meet the 2022 deadline even if they awarded the tenders now, it said. “It takes at least two years for a station to complete FGD construction. Hence, a coalbased power project with a 2022 deadline should have begun construction by 2019,” the report observed. Under the guidelines of the Central Pollution Control Board, close to 50 gigawatt of thermal power capacity needs to install emission control systems at their plants. FGD or Flue Gas Desulphurization (FGD) is installed at the power generation units to reduce emission. According to a submission made by private power generators, FGD cost is around Rs 40 Lakh per MW. CSE said, centre-owned plants appear which are leading in implementation of SO2 norms, followed by privately-owned ones. State-owned units have made no progress on implementation – only one plant has awarded tenders so far. India’s total installed power generation capacity stands at 367 gigawatt. Coal continues to be the bulk energy provider, making up 205 GW or 89 per cent of the thermal power capacity. “We cannot accept that we will continue to use coal without emission control. We want growth post-lockdown, but it has to be a growth which comes with our right to clean air. This must be equally important,” said the report.

Why govt must incentivise power plants for reducing emissions

A report released by CSE suggested that the government should come up with a mechanism which would incentivise the power plants that invest in upgrading their technologies to reduce emissions and formulate disincentives for the laggards. Power plants which are taking no actions to install equipment to reduce emissions should face punitive action from the government, environment experts said. A report released by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) on Thursday suggested that the government should come up with a mechanism which would incentivise the power plants that invest in upgrading their technologies to reduce emissions and formulate disincentives for the laggards. Referring to a report by the Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority, Sunita Narain, director general at CSE, said that the government can design the merit order despatch — the system which allows power plants with lower variable cost to sell power first — so that it will incentivise the plants that install pollution control equipment. Coal-based power contributes to pollutants such as oxides of nitrogen (NOx), sulphur dioxide (SO2) and particulate matter (PM). In addition, the sector is also very water-intensive. Though Indian coal has low sulphur content, experts at CSE pointed out that due to its low calorific value, the volume of coal required is significantly high, leading to higher S02 emissions. Referring to satellite data, the report pointed that high S02 concentration are found in areas in Odisha, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra, which have large coal-fired capacities. Coal-based power plants across the country are in the process of installing flue gas de-sulphurisation (FGD) units and electrostatic precipitators (ESP) and upgrading existing equipment to meet the environmental norms. It requires an estimated Rs 27 lakh-45 lakh per MW for FGD installation, necessitating a rise of Rs 0.62-0.93/unit in power tariffs. As reported earlier by FE, about 14,000 MW of power plants around the national capital region have missed the first deadline of installing FGDs by December, 2019. Another 26,330-MW power capacities are required to set up FGD units in 2020, 64,268 MW in 2021 and 64,055 MW in 2022. CLP India’s 1,320 MW Jhajjar power plant is currently the only station to have commissioned such equipment. Finance is the biggest hurdle in this exercise, especially at state-owned and private plants. The sector is hardly in the best of health, with plants facing low capacity utilisation due to less-thanexpected growth in demand. A section of the industry has pointed that coal washing can solve the problem of S02 emissions, and the expenses on costly FGDs need not be made.

India's 70% coal-fired power plants may not meet 2022 emission norms: CSE

Even as the government has decided to allow commercial mining of coal, a study done by Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) has found that 70 per cent of India's coal fired power plants may not meet the more stringent emission norms that kick into effect in 2022. The new norms that seek to reduce particulate matter emissions by 35 per cent, sulphur dioxide by 80 per cent and nitrous oxide by 42 per cent were originally slated to kick in by 2017 but were relaxed by 5 years to let the power sector ready itself. CSE fears government's intent of expediting and enhancing coal mining in the country may also result in higher pollution if the power sector is not reigned in. ALSO READ: Coal mining reform: Effects in medium term, no relief from COVID-19, says CARE Ratings "We cannot accept that we will continue to use coal without emission control. We want growth post-lockdown, but it has to be a growth which comes with our right to clean air. This must be equally important," says Sunita Narain, director, CSE. "Our assessment finds that most of the total installed coal-fired capacity will not be compliant with the crucial sulphur dioxide (SO2) standards by 2022." Coal accounts for 56 per cent of power generated in India and accounts for over 60 per cent of particulate matter emissions, 45 per cent of sulphur, 30 per cent of nitrogen oxides and over 80 per cent of mercury emissions in the country. It also consumes 70 per cent of total fresh water that is used for industrial purposes in the country. ALSO READ: Big beneficiaries of Tranche IV stimulus: Adani, Vedanta, Tata Power, Anil Ambani's Reliance "Coal-fired power plants are some of the most polluting industries in the country. Therefore, even as we continue using coal, India's thermal power sector must clean up its act. This is absolutely non-negotiable," Narain says. CSE has demanded hefty penalties on plants that end up not meeting the 2022 deadline and for the government to not extend it further. Further, it wants older plants that do not meet even the current regulations to be either refurbished at the earliest, or shut down.

70% power plants won’t meet emission standards by 2022 deadline: CSE

It recommends that Environment Ministry issue directions and impose fines on plants that won’t meet deadline. A report released by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) on Thursday said that with just two years to go, 70% of the country's power plants won’t be able to meet the stringent emission standards that will come into effect in 2022. The standards set by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change in December 2015 were based on global standards, it said. CSE director general Sunita Narain said in a statement, “Our assessment finds that even after seven years since the notification and even after the agreed five-year extension given to this sector in 2017, most of the total installed coal-fired capacity will not be compliant with the crucial sulphur dioxide (SO2) standards by 2022.” Lack of information The CSE said there was lack of information in the public domain about the compliance with particulate matter or nitrogen oxide standards. “Coal-fired power plants are some of the most polluting industries in the country. They account for over 60% of the total PM emissions from all industry, as well as 45% of the SO2, 30% of oxides of nitrogen and over 80% of the mercury emissions. Therefore, even as we continue using coal, India’s thermal power sector must clean up its act. This is absolutely non-negotiable,” Ms. Narain said. The CSE report said the implementation of the stringent standards would, according to rough estimates, reduce emissions of PM by 35%, SO2 by 80% and NOx by 42%. Power plants with 97GW capacity were compliant with the standards so far and 14GW was in the upgrade process, the report said. “Total compliance and non-compliance could not be ascertained as no information was available on the status of progress of an additional 69 GW capacity.” For SO2, 16GW capacity was compliant and tenders had been awarded with respect to 32GW capacity and preliminary work was on for 125 GW capacity, while there were no plans for 9GW capacity. “It is highly unlikely for units still at preliminary stages or with no plan to meet the 2022 deadline even if they awarded the tenders now. It takes at least two years for a station to complete FGD (flue-gas desulfurisation) construction. Hence, a coal-based power project with a 2022 deadline should have begun construction by 2019,” the report said. It recommended that the Environment Ministry issue directions and impose fines on the plants that won’t meet the 2022 deadline.

Indian coal plants unlikely to meet pollution norms: CSE

A new study report by Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) finds that almost 70 per cent of India’s coal-fired power plants will not meet revised emission standards that come into effect in two years. The norms were set in December 2015 by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC). “Even after seven years since the notification and even after the agreed five-year extension given to this sector in 2017, most of the total installed coal-fired capacity will not be compliant with the crucial sulphur dioxide (SO2) standards by 2022,” says CSE director general Sunita Narain. The study comes in the wake of the Government of India throwing open the coal mining sector to private sector majors, even as efforts are on globally to phase out the usage of the highly polluting energy source to control climate change. “Given the thrust of the Indian government to expedite and enhance coal mining in the country, our study gains urgency,” CSE said. “We cannot accept that we will continue to use coal without emission control. We want growth post lockdown, but it has to be a growth which comes with our right to clean air. This must be equally important,” the environmental NGO emphasized. Narain says there is little information in the public domain about compliance levels for dust or other pollutants like NOx standards. “Certainly, there is no direction to the thermal power plants that they must meet the crucial water standards, which would make this water-guzzling sector more responsible on its usage,” she says. Coal-fired power plants are some of the most polluting industries in the country, estimated to account for over 60 per cent of the total particulate matter (PM) emissions from all industry, as well as 45 per cent of the SO2, 30 per cent of oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and over 80 per cent of the mercury emissions. The sector is responsible for 70 per cent of total freshwater withdrawal by all industries in the country, according to the NGO. “Therefore, even as we continue using coal, India’s thermal power sector must clean up its act. This is absolutely non-negotiable,” adds Narain. Nevertheless, coal is the mainstay of India’s power sector with 56 per cent of generation capacity being based on it. The share of actual power generated will be higher, as coal plants can run 24×7, unlike solar and hydro electric projects, which face fluctuations in their energy supply. The CSE says that the 2015 standards can cut down emissions of particles by 35 per cent, SO2 by 80 per cent, and NOx by 42 per cent, while bringing down freshwater use. The sector, however, has been far from forthcoming in accepting the norms, the environmental organization complains. RECOMMENDATIONS CSE has urged the environment ministry to issue directions and impose hefty fines on the plants which are not on the path to meeting the 2022 deadline. “High penalties/closure notices should be issued for non-compliant Delhi-NCR airshed plants at least for the peak winter pollution months. Take urgent decision regarding the older plants which cannot meet the already lax emission standards. “These must be retired/refurbished to use alternative fuels or move towards using the plants for biomass gasification or ultra-modern municipal waste processing units.” “We know that this sector, which provides energy to the country’s industry and households, is difficult to shut down,” says Narain. “Therefore, there is insufficient deterrence which is clearly derailing the implementation efforts – as a result of which power plants continue to flout all directions. We are suggesting that there should be changes in the merit order dispatch system so that it provides an effective tool to incentivise the cleaner plants and reward the best performers, while also disincentivising units that do not adhere to standards.”

Most India coal plants may miss emission deadline, study ays

A majority of India’s coal-fired power stations may miss deadlines to curb toxic emissions, hurting efforts to curb air pollution, according to non-profit group Centre for Science and Environment. A majority of India’s coal-fired power stations may miss deadlines to curb toxic emissions, hurting efforts to curb air pollution, according to non-profit group Centre for Science and Environment. As much as 70% of the country’s coal-fired capacity is at risk of missing the 2022 deadline for capping emissions of sulfur di-oxide, the environment group, also called CSE, said in a report. MORE FROM THIS SECTIONSee All Health workers in PPE kit at banquet hall which converted into COVID care center in New Delhi on Tuesday. (ANI Photo) Early trend of decline in daily new Covid cases and deaths noted in India: Govt 2 min read . 04:59 PM IST Dr Balram Bhargava, Director General, ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research) briefs media over COVID-19, in New Delhi on Tuesday. (ANI Photo) India's Covid-19 positivity rate around 21%: Govt 2 min read . 04:54 PM IST China's working-age population, or people aged between 16 and 59, stands at 880 million China's population grows at slowest pace to 1.412 bn, may begin to decline by next year 4 min read . 04:36 PM IST The Karnataka CM visited a Covid war room in Bengaluru and took the information regarding hospital beds, oxygen facility and status of essential drugs. 'Vacate beds, don't unnecessarily overstay in hospitals', says Karnataka CM 1 min read . 04:32 PM IST Indian power generators have moved slowly on implementing the pollution standards, voicing concerns ranging from high costs to financing challenges and lack of regulatory clarity. Business disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic may exacerbate those worries. In addition, the government plans to open up coal mining to the private sector, an indication the polluting fuel will remain the mainstay of the country’s energy needs. “We cannot accept that we will continue to use coal without emission control," CSE said in an emailed statement about the report. “We want growth post-lockdown, but it has to be a growth which comes with our right to clean air. This must be equally important." There’s little information in the public domain on compliance with nitrogen oxides and particulate matter standards, CSE said in the statement. India’s environment ministry introduced the emission rules in Dec. 2015 and gave the plants two years to comply. The deadline was later extended to as late as 2022. A bunch of plants close to capital New Delhi have already missed their Dec. 2019 deadlines for installation of the anti-pollution equipment. Coal-fired power plants supply nearly 70% of India’s electricity and have an important role in the country’s economy. Yet, they’re are among the biggest sources of pollution, accounting for more than 60% of the particulate matter emissions from all industry, as well as 45% of sulfur di-oxide releases, according to CSE. With nationwide implementation of the emission standards, India could avoid more than 300,000 premature deaths through 2030, according to a study by Bengaluru-based Center for Study of Science, Technology & Policy.

70 per cent of coal-fired power plants may not meet emission standards by 2022, says CSE

NEW DELHI: A new study by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) has found that almost 70% of the coal-fired power plants in India may not meet environmental norms (emission standards) by 2022 - five year after their extended deadline - the way they are still not compliant on many critical green issues. The study flagged the overall impact of coal-based plants on environment if they continue to operate without emission control. It said the "deadline should be non-negotiable for plants which came up after the notification". image0 Congratulations! The new emission standards and water discharge norms for coal-based power plants were introduced in 2015. All plants were mandatorily required to comply with the norms by December 2017. This deadline was, however, later extended till 2022 when many plants raised practical problems in implementing those norms within that period. "Our assessment finds that even after seven years since the notification and even after the agreed five-year extension given to this sector in 2017, most of the total installed coal-fired capacity will not be compliant with the crucial sulphur dioxide (SO2) standards by 2022," said Sunita Narain, director general of the CSE, while releasing a report on findings of the study. image1 She said, "There is little information in the public domain about compliance with particulate matter(PM) or NOx standards and certainly, there is no direction to the thermal power plants that they must meet the crucial water standards, which would make this water-guzzling sector more responsible on its usage." The report - Coal-based Power Norms: Where do we stand today - shows that the coal-fired power plants are, currently, among the most polluting industries in the country. "They account for over 60% of the total PM emissions from all industry, as well as 45% of the SO2, 30% of oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and over 80% of the mercury emissions," it said. Underlining those details, Narain said, "Even as we continue using coal, India’s thermal power sector must clean up its act. This is absolutely non-negotiable." The study was released a day after the Union Cabinet approved the Coal Blocks Allocation (Amendment) Rules. It comes in the backdrop of the finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s announcement last week on slew of reforms in the coal sector to enhance domestic production. Highlighting huge scope for improvement in the sector’s environmental performance as per the 2015 notification on emission standards, the CSE’s study noted that the implementation of such standards can cut down emissions of PM by 35%, SO2 by 80% and NOx by 42%. "They can also bring down freshwater use by the industry," it said. Bringing plant-wise details on implementation of the 2015 emission standards, report recommended that the environment ministry "should issue directions and impose hefty fines on the plants which clearly will not meet the 2022 deadline". It also suggested issuing of high penalties or closure notices for non-compliant Delhi-NCR airshed plants at least for the peak winter pollution months. Asking for urgent decision regarding older plants which cannot meet the already lax emission standards, the study suggested that such plants must be retired/refurbished to use alternative fuels or move towards using the plants for biomass gasification or ultra-modern municipal waste processing units. "The report has structured its content to enable an easy understanding of the subject – from providing an overview of the standards and a chronology and progress of the implementation process, to giving updates on phasing out of old plants and rules for new ones," said Soundaram Ramanathan, deputy programme manager, industrial pollution unit of the CSE.

India opening up coal sector but 70 pc plants do not meet emission standards, says CSE

India opening up coal sector but 70 pc plants do not meet emission standards, says CSE Vibha Sharma While Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has announced major structural reforms for the coal sector, including commercial mining in coal on a revenue-sharing basis, to boost India’s COVID-hit economy, leading environmental NGO Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) claims 70 per cent of coal-fired power stations may not meet environmental norms by the 2022 deadline. Coal-fired power plants are some of the most polluting industries and the sector must meet the environmental norms to ensure ‘the right to breathe in clean air’, says the Centre for Science and Environment. Seeking urgent action, CSE director-general Sunita Narain said the Environment Ministry must issue directions and impose hefty fines on plants which clearly would not meet the 2022 deadline, along with high penalties/closure notices for non-compliant Delhi-NCR airshed plants, at least for peak winter pollution months. “The Environment Ministry should immediately decide regarding the older plants which cannot meet the already lax emission standards. Either they must be retired/refurbished to use alternative fuels or move towards using the plants for biomass gasification or ultra-modern municipal waste processing units. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in her 2020 Budget speech, had discussed the need to close these plants,” she added. Notably, India is opening up coal mining to privatisation to revive the economy. However, coal-fired power plants have to meet stringent new emission norms by 2022, set in December 2015, by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC). “The industry tried to first obstruct and prevaricate on the 2015 standards. The deadline for meeting them was moved from 2017 to 2022. But the sector continues to remain in its state of sloth. With barely two years to go before the deadline hits them, almost 70 per cent of the plants will not meet the emission standards,” says the CSE report ‘Coal-based Power Norms: Where do we stand’ released on Thursday. The 2015 standards are in line with global regulations. According to rough estimates, their implementation can cut down emissions of PM by 35 per cent, SO2 by 80 per cent, and NOx by 42 per cent. They can also bring down freshwater use by the industry. The sector, however, has been far from forthcoming in accepting the norms, says the study based on the assessment of the progress in the implementation of environmental norms. Furthermore, there is a little information in the public domain about compliance with PM or NOx standards and certainly, there is no direction to the thermal power plants that they must meet the crucial water standards, which would make this water-guzzling sector more responsible on its usage. With 56 per cent of generation capacity being based on it, coal is the mainstay of India’s power sector. Besides being accountable for emissions of pollutants like SO2 etc, the sector is also extremely water-intensive and is responsible for 70 per cent of total freshwater withdrawal by all industries in the country, according to the CSE.

Vizag Gas Leak: Timely Siren, Evacuation Training Could Have Saved 12 Lives, Says Report

People living in a radius greater than 0.6 km from the plant would have got 30-40 minutes to evacuate the premises if an alarm had sounded within five minutes, a report says. Hyderabad, TELANGANA: A timely siren and proper evacuation training could have saved the 12 people who died in Visakhapatnam after inhaling gas leaked from an LG Polymers plant in the early hours of May 7, according to a report by two independent experts. The report, by Sagar Dhara, a Hyderabad based environmental engineer and former faculty member of IIT-Bombay, and K. Babu Rao, a retired senior scientist of Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT), Hyderabad, was prepared with estimates deduced using the ALOHA software, which was used to model the extent of gas released from the faulty tank inside the LG plant. Taking into account the storage capacity of the plant (1,900 tonnes), wind speed (less than 1 m per second) and the proximity of residential villages, if a siren had sounded five minutes after temperature in the tank, which contained polymerized styrene, rose over 65°C, even residents living within a radius of 0.5 km from the plant would have had 18-27 minutes to evacuate the premises, the yet-to-be-published report, a copy of which is with Huffpost India, calculates. Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy had said in a press conference held on the day of the leak that he was “concerned that an alarm did not sound when the leak happened”. He, however, also praised LG Polymers as a “reputed company” in the same media briefing. While an expert committee has been set up to probe the reasons for the lapse, it has not submitted its report yet. The company has not yet provided an explanation as to why an alarm did not alert residents to the leak, as per government rules. STR via Getty Images A man carries a fainted young girl (R) to evacuate her following a gas leak incident at an LG Polymers plant in Visakhapatnam on May 7, 2020. On the day of the leak, Andhra Pradesh politicians had laid the blame for the mishap on LG Polymers and the industrial policies put in place by the former Telugu Desam Party government. The next day, the state government decided to inspect the premises of existing hazardous industries to check if the population density around the plants has gone up significantly. “In several areas, after the plants were set up, the population has increased. For new companies which want to start functioning in AP, Andhra Pradesh government has decided to bring out a new Industries Act after the lockdown ends. This will have stringent checks for polluting industries which want to start operations in AP. The Chief Minister has been clear that AP will not be a dumping yard for such industries,” said industries minister Mekapati Goutham Reddy. Seoul-based LG Polymers, which sent a team to inspect the plant on 12 May, has said in a release dated May 16 that they completed transportation of styrene monomer inventory and tanks to South Korea “to prevent and eliminate all risk factors”. The plant has been nonoperational. since the accident occurred. While LG chairman Koo Kwang-mo issued a public apology for the accident, news reports also say that LG Polymers has filed a defamation case against the Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board (APPCB) in the Supreme Court. Reddy has said that the leak occurred when workers were “doing maintenance work” in the plant after it was shut for 40 days because of the national lockdown. The plant had 15 workers on site when the leak took place, a company representative had told the media. While the workers are believed to have fled the spot, a resident alerted the police by making a call to the control room at 3.30 am. What else does the report say? People living in a radius greater than 0.6 km from the plant would have got 30-40 minutes to evacuate the premises if an alarm had sounded within five minutes, said the report. Those who lived within a radius of between 2.6 km and 6.3 km from the plant would have got 80-169 minutes, or over two-and-a-half hours, to leave the area. According to media reports, the majority of the victims of the leak lived within 2-6 km radius of the plant. Family members react as they mourn deceased relatives a day after a gas leak incident at LG Polymers plant, at King George Hospital mortuary in Visakhapatnam on May 8, 2020. Both Dhara and Rao have earlier worked on similar reports on corporate violations that have forced governments to take note. In 2019, a report prepared by Dhara on the environmental hazards caused by an Adani Group-owned coal plant in Udupi prompted the National Green Tribunal to revoke the plant’s environmental clearance. The plant was also asked to pay Rs 5 crore as fine to the Central Pollution Control Board. Rao’s most recent scientific report was on the environmental hazards of uranium mining in the Nallamala forest of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. Following the intervention of activists including Rao, the Telangana government denied permission for uranium mining within the state boundaries despite the centre’s clearance. In the LG Polymers report, the researchers point out that the three areas designated as red, orange and yellow zones—according to their proximity to the plant and exposure to a potential leak— were all affected by the leak. According to the report, the accident could have happened because the national lockdown “may have reduced the inhibitor concentration in the tank, or no inhibitor was added for a considerable period, and the refrigeration system was either not working or was working insufficiently for some time before the accident”. This, the researchers say, may have increased the temperature inside the tank up to 180°C. On May 7 morning, a staff member of LG Polymers had also admitted that the company was not able to maintain the tank temperature below 20°C “because of the lockdown”. AP industries minister Reddy told HuffPost India that the government had asked all industries to have “enough personnel on site to restart the plant after lockdown relaxation” and that they had issued “some guidelines and some checklists”. LG Polymers had not asked the government for clearance to operate because they had not planned to restart operations yet, he said. “They were getting the plant ready for production when the accident happened,” Reddy said. The findings of Dhara and Rao’s report are similar to an evaluation done on May 7 by Sukanya Nair of Centre for Science and Environment, New Delhi. Stating that all hazardous industries which plan to reopen after the lockdown should strictly follow maintenance and start-up protocol, Nair said in her report that, “the problem began as a result of styrene gas not being stored at the appropriate temperature. This caused pressure to build up in the storage chamber and led the valve to break, resulting in the gas leakage”. While Dhara and Rao have recommended temperature below 18°C for safe storage of styrene, Nair in her report had maintained that the temperature should have been less than 17°C. The latter’s report says that “the container that was being used to store styrene gas was old and not properly maintained…Another issue was the defunct VOC (Volatile Organic Compound) detection system at the plant; there is no monitoring mechanism that was installed to specifically detect styrene”. VOC detection system usually acts as an alarm or is usually linked to a siren. Evacuation training a must Dhara, however, emphasised that a siren alone would not have helped local residents. “As per Manufacture, Storage and Import of Hazardous Chemical rules, 1989, the surrounding villagers should have been trained in evacuation procedure. This would have prevented casualties,” he said. According to the report, the company violated not just the 1989 rules which stipulate that “the bystander population be told of the risk they were at and trained in evacuation procedures in the event of an accident”, it also failed to follow a 1999-2000 APPCB order which states that, “all facilities handling hazardous chemicals must put a board intimating the maximum vulnerable zone in the event of a catastrophic accident at their main gate… that is visible to public”. While many companies have put up the warning boards, LG Polymers failed to do so, Dhara added. On May 8, The Indian Express reported that LG Polymers had no clearance from APPCB to expand its production capacity. Trade union activists also allege that the ISO-certified plant had been “selfregulating” its pollution levels and wasn’t inspected at regular intervals. AP Industries Minister Reddy also confirmed that the company has been “selfregulating” its operations, including pollution control. “Self-auditing of pollution controls means that based on complaints from the public, sudden inspections from industries department cannot be made. Only annual checking can be held in such selfregulated plants,” said Ch Narsinga Rao, president of Fertilisers Union, Visakhapatnam Steel Plant Employees Union and state president of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions. The accident could have occurred only if the workers who were on duty at the plant had skipped two or three of the start-up controls during the maintenance work held on May 7, said Rao, who has been a trade unionist and industrial employee at Visakhapatnam steel plant for 40 years.

Covid fear may push more vehicles on road, says study

Noida: Despite steps being taken to ensure social distancing and sanitisation in metros and buses, public transportation might not be the preferred mode of commuting in the near future, according to a study by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE). The fear of the novel coronavirus could actually push people towards using private vehicles, which in turn could worsen the air quality, it said. The study was conducted during the first two phases of the lockdown in the National Capital Region (NCR) and revealed a ‘massive clean-up’ in air quality. It was carried out on two parameters, PM 2.5 and NO2, which are markers for vehicular pollution. The average drop in PM 2.5 over the first two phases of lockdown has been 39% in NCR. The drop in NO2 levels has been 49%. Figures shared by CSE show a 39% drop in pollution levels across NCR cities compared to the average recorded in the first 10 days of the first phase of lockdown. While Delhi showed a 33% dip, Gurgaon saw a 35% dip, Noida and Ghaziabad recorded a drop of 34% and 38%, respectively. The NO2 levels showed an average drop by 49% in NCR when data from 10 days before and after lockdown was compared. While Noida showed a drop of 55%, Gurgaon reported a 44% drop. The data for Ghaziabad was not recorded. Asked about the apprehension regarding the air turning poorer when vehicles return, Anumita Roy Choudhury, CSE’s executive director, research and advocacy, told TOI: “Despite significant improvement in AQI, people will take out their four-wheelers and two-wheelers, which may lead to a spike in pollution levels. In global studies, we have shown how air pollution affects respiration. An increase pollution levels could make people more prone to respiratory problems. We will continue the study till end of lockdown 4.0 and we suggest that the government keeps in mind the ramifications.” What can be done? Talking about possible solutions, Roy Choudhury said: “There is a need to bring about restraint when it comes to travel demand and controlling movement through developing virtual work places, digitisation and staggered timing. We need strategies for crowd management and cleanliness during a pandemic that can be adapted to make public transportation attractive. Walking and cycling are immediate contact less and independent travelling options that should be scaled up.” Experts in government, however, said traffic load might not be an immediate concern. “More and more firms are likely to encourage work from home even after lockdown, which will take away the need for daily commute. So, we don’t see too many vehicles on roads at least for the next 20 days,” said Utsav Sharma, regional officer, UP Pollution Control Board, Ghaziabad. Times of India | Delhi | May 21, 2020

Lockdown spells cleaner air with stubble burning at lowest in 5 yrs

Although the National Capital Region gets engulfed in smoke from stubble burning during the winter season, particularly in the villages of Haryana and Punjab, rabi crop residues are also burnt during this time of the year across north India. The heavily polluted Indo-Gangetic plains have recorded the lowest agriculture residue burning this year since 2016, satellite images from US space agency NASA have shown. Researchers and government officials said of the several reasons behind the decline in the springtime farm fire count could be the nationwide lockdown after the outbreak of Covid-19. “Springtime fire activities (mostly agricultural) over the Indo-Gangetic Plain have been the lowest this year in comparison to the last five years during the Covid-19-led lockdown period,” Hiren Jethva, a researcher from Universities Space Research Association at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, tweeted on Saturday. Although the National Capital Region gets engulfed in smoke from stubble burning during the winter season, particularly in the villages of Haryana and Punjab, rabi crop residues are also burnt during this time of the year across north India. Air pollution is, however, much lower during summer because of favourable meteorological conditions such as strong winds. Graphs and data tweeted by Jethva showed that while in 2016 the cumulative fire count between April 15 and May 15 was around 70,000, in 2020 the figure has come down to around 10,000 during the same period across various north and central Indian states located in the plains. In 2019, the fire count registered a rise, the data shows. Top officials from the state pollution control boards of Punjab and Haryana confirmed that there has been a sharp drop in stubble burning incidents this year till date. “In 2019 there were around 5,768 such incidents in Haryana till May 15. In 2020 we have recorded around 2,430 incidents. The lockdown effect could be one reason. A clearer picture will emerge when the harvest is completed by the end of May and we take the final survey,” said S Narayanan, member secretary of the Haryana Pollution Control Board. “We have seen the NASA maps and analysed fire counts in the National Capital Region. There is definitely a decline in such incidents. The restrictions during the all-India lockdown and the shortage of labour could be the reasons,” said Anumita Roy Chowdhury executive director (research and advocacy) at the Centre for Science and Environment in New Delhi. Though Jethva suggested lower crop volumes could be an additional factor for the decline in stubble burning, government officials said the harvest has been good this year. The reasons notwithstanding, the fall in air pollution levels should come as welcome news. As HT has reported earlier, SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, can cling to air pollutants. Tests conducted in Italy have found the same. Also, air pollution is likely to be a major risk factor for coronavirus disease mortality, scientists have concluded. “There has been a definite decline in the number of fire incidents. The reasons behind this need to be verified -- whether it is because of the shortage of labour, whether crop yield is low this time or some other reason. This could provide some vital inputs for future planning,” said Sagnik Dey, coordinator of the Center of Excellence for Research on Clean Air (CERCA) and associate professor at the Centre for Atmospheric Sciences (CAS) at the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi. Hindustan Times | Delhi | May 18, 2020

Covid-19 has made the invisible visible

Today, these 'invisible' people have become visible Sunita Narain Of the images that haunt me, these are particularly heart-rending — one, that of the little girl who died off the coast of a European city as her parents were trying desperately to reach there by boat from a faraway land, for a better future. The other, more recent, is of an elderly woman, with all her belongings on head, walking kilometres to get home from a Covid-19 locked-down city in India, leaving behind her dreams of work and going back to the village she came from. The third is of the young man — also escaping from a locked-down city — who died after walking for days, just some hundred kilometres from his village. For the past one year, I have been writing about migration — from the perspective of increased insecurity in villages, wrecked by poverty, agrarian distress, and now the weird weather, which makes agriculture more and more unviable and life unbearable. It was due to the traditional push (people leaving because they had no choice) and pull (people leaving because they wanted more choice) factors, but at a much heightened pace and scale. This exodus was hardly documented. The World Migration Report 2020 says global migration is on the rise. But there is little data on migration within countries. In India, the last official count of migrants was in the Census of 2011, which was outdated and did not explain the huge numbers of what I called “illegal” settlements growing in urban areas, congested, without urban services, and, most often, the hub of industrial activity, which, in turn, is the cause of pollution in the city. Today, these “invisible” people have become visible. We see thousands and thousands of “migrants” are cramped in relief camps because the government will not let them go home, fearing that the disease will spread through them to villages and remote districts. We see them because they are desperate to leave the city, and because there is no public transport operating, they walk back with their belongings and their children, and with no food and no place to sleep. When asked, they have told us they do not want food; they just want to go home. Their cry is unmistakable, heart-wrenching. Now, the numbers are emerging. The Union government in its affidavit of April 12, 2020, filed in the Supreme Court, said there were some 40,000 relief camps in operation across states, where some 1.4 million migrant workers are housed and fed. But this is an underestimation. There are many who are not in the camps; they are on the road, struggling to reach their destination. After April 29, when some 40 days after the nationwide lockdown began, the Union government said that the stranded people could go home — buses would ferry them across states, the numbers are beginning to be better known. We will have to wait to see once this flood of people reach their destination — in trains, buses, or trucks; by road; or any other way they can make it — to understand the real implications of this movement from city to village. What will this mean? The first is about the works they will leave behind. Migrants may have been illegal in some countries and unrecognised in others, but the fact is that their labour is vital for all economies. Today vast parts of Europe, Australia, and the US do not have enough labour to harvest their crops. What then will be the fate of food in the coming months? In India, the impact will be felt as the lockdown ends and labour is in short supply to restart the economy. Will this make us value them more, provide them better opportunities and benefits so that they return? Will this give migrants a makeover in the post-Covid-19 world? There is also the other reality that Covid- 19 has thrown at us. The places where the disease is most likely to breed are where there are no urban services, where settlements are overcrowded, where safe water supply and sanitation are inadequate, and where people have no way to stay safe. This is where we have allowed our workforce to live. Consider Singapore, where the virus has made a virulent comeback. The island nation, always confident of its cleanliness record, is finding that it did not take care of the dense settlements where its migrant labour lives. It is the same elsewhere. So, will we rework the need to provide better housing, water, and sanitation services to our urban poor, including the migrant labour? Will this mean we will invest in improving the environment in which they live and work? Lastly, what happens when the migrants go back home? Will they want to return? This then is the opportunity to invest in rural economies so that they have the choice not to leave?

Meet 3 Indian environmentalists fighting to save the planet

Their work will inspire you to do your bit towards fighting climate change Sunita Narain DIRECTOR GENERAL OF THE CENTRE FOR SCIENCE AND ENVIRONMENT (CSE) AND EDITOR OF DOWN TO EARTH MAGAZINE Sunita Narain’s curiosity for environmental issues started while she was still in school, inspired by her mother who was an avid gardener. However, her first brush with a real movement was the Chipko movement. The Padma Shri awardee now plays an active role in policy formulation on issues of environment and development and has been listed as one of the 100 most influential people in the world in the Time magazine. “As an environmentalist, we strive to ensure human beings improve their livelihood while being in tune with nature. To create a resilient economy that is nature-friendly but benefits the poorest,” she says. Over the years, she has helped in implementing rainwater harvesting systems across villages, chaired the Tiger Task Force for the conservation of the big cats and has continued to research and advocate local participatory democracy as the key to sustainable development.