Fly ash park to come up in Odisha soon

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government on Saturday decided to expedite the setting up of a fly ash park in Angul district to combat pollution in the highly polluted region.

Holding a stakeholders’ meeting here, Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium (MSME) Secretary L.N. Gupta said the setting up of the proposed fly ash park near Angul should be put on fast track and the park should become a reality during the current financial year.

He emphasised on the need of value addition in terms of manufacturing of value added products based on fly ash.

The park would have a Common Facility Centre, a testing lab and other necessary infrastructure to support fly ash based brick manufacturers in the park.

Gupta requested the Angul district collector to coordinate for the formation of a special purpose vehicle of the fly ash industries to set up the park.

The park is proposed to be set up over 53 acres near Angul and the alienation of land is under progress. The Diagnostic Study Report (DSR) for the project has already been prepared by the Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (EDII), Bhubaneswar.

It was decided to send the DSR to the Ministry of MSME, Government of India by July 31 this year for funding of development of the Common Facility Centre (CFC) under the MSE-CDP scheme.

Debadutta Biswal, member secretary of the State Pollution Control Board said about 32 million tonnes of fly ash is generated annually from the thermal power plants set up in the state.

Of this, around 14 million tonnes of fly ash is generated from the Angul-Dhenkanal region alone, he added.

D.K. Behera, senior environmental scientist, State Pollution Control Board, explained that this fly ash can be utilised for manufacturing bricks, blocks, tiles as well as cement.

He indicated that at present approximately 57 per cent of the fly ash in the districts of Angul and Dhenkanal is being utilised. (IANS)