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People dying in Ahmedabad and Surat due to Torrent power plant pollution

July 17, 2023

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Gandhinagar, 17 July 2023
In 2018, more than 30,000 people died due to air pollution in Gujarat. Air pollution has become Yamraj for the people of Gujarat. The people of Gujarat were dying 2 years before their time.

Ahmedabad became the most polluted city of Gujarat.. According to the latest data of February 18, 2023, Ahmedabad reached the 10th most polluted city in India. In 2021, more than 1500 people died due to bad air in Ahmedabad. Surat, Rajkot and Vadodara were also in the race to become the most polluted cities.

Poisonous Gujarat
The estimated life expectancy of people living in India has reduced by 10 years. The air of Gujarat is becoming poisonous. Takes poison through the nose. The air of Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara, Rajkot has become most polluted. In which Torrent Power House is responsible.

Ahmedabad and Surat getting poisoned by torrent electricity!
There have been many revelations in the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG). In February 2019, the Gujarat Pollution Control Board (PCB) rejected Torrent Group’s 362 MW thermal power plant in Ahmedabad. Which contributed 66% to the total air pollution of Surat-Ahmedabad city. Fossil fuel-based TPPs (thermal power plants) with a total capacity of 500 MW were also operating in and around Surat, but their emissions were not taken into account while preparing Surat’s Air Action Plan. The CAG was not satisfied with the Gujarat government’s justification for excluding thermal power plants from the air action plans of the two cities.

death in india
India has also become number 1 in terms of deaths due to pollution. According to the report, in the year 2019, 23.5 lakh people lost their lives prematurely due to pollution. According to his estimate, the death of 2 lakh people can be estimated in Gujarat. 1.6 million people died due to air pollution in India. Which was 17.8% of the total deaths in the country. A total of over 8 lakh people died due to household air pollution in India in 2019.

Black air billowing from hundreds of small chimneys was a common sight in and around Gujarati cities. Poor air quality often causes irritation of the eyes, nose and throat. Asthma attacks and other respiratory problems cause distress.

The Environment Minister gave this information in the Lok Sabha. There were 33,486 registered factories in the state of Gujarat, out of which 4605 factories were not following the environmental norms. Which was 16 percent. 28166 factories in the country do not follow the law. Gujarat ranks second in the country in polluting factories. Poor reporting of pollution by manufacturing plants due to high monitoring costs, corruption or lack of staff.

Legal action was taken on 4 factories in Gujarat. 313 factories were closed. A polluting factory was closed. Correct? In India, 33% of manufacturing output came from small-scale plants, located in about 6,000 clusters spread across the country.

Show cause notices were given to 3323 factories. Action was pending against 965 factories.
The factory was compromising the health of the people of Gujarat.

The case study details a pilot project in Gujarat.

CEMS Scheme
Continuous Emission Monitoring System (CEMS) has been planned for remote monitoring of pollution by industrial plants. The use of CEMS was a promising solution to this challenge. These devices continuously measured the emissions of factories online. And declared online in the control room.. The collected data was transmitted in real time to remotely located computer servers.. Based on which action could be taken.. This internet connected system was completely failed by the industries and authorities. Had done it. No concrete legal action was taken. There was collusion between industry and laboratories to falsify online data.

Due to which the benefit of CEMS scheme could not reach the people. Gujarat was allowed to experiment with India’s first emissions trading scheme but it did not come to fruition.

increasing pollution
Cheap and highly polluting fuels were used to provide energy. The cost was driving up the environmental consequences. Which put health and economic prospects at great risk.. Air quality deteriorated alarmingly fast.. Satellite data revealed. K, Particulate Matter 2.5 (PM 2.5) concentrations in India increased by more than 70% between 1998 and 2016.. in the cities of Surat and Ahmedabad in Gujarat. collected data from hundreds of industrial plants and found that around 35% were polluting above legally prescribed limits.

Health
Air pollution was one of the most serious public health challenges. With the effects of poor air quality reducing crop yields, Gujarat moved towards lower labor productivity. Decreased cognitive skills.

pollution despite laws
Despite strong environmental laws, poor quality of the environment was observed.. Still the existing laws are not enough for polluting industries. Gujarat’s highly industrialized factories were found to be violating pollution norms to some extent. No pollution monitoring for the less staffed Environment Control Board. Monitoring a large number of highly polluting but relatively small factories was difficult. Indian environmental law was based on criminal penalties. CEMS data could not easily be used as a legal basis. having no legal status

given.

Case study details
drink more

There is no single cause of the problem of industrial air pollution. The functioning of the regulatory framework is not correct. Low institutional capacity and expertise, high transaction costs of taking legal action, corruption, high compliance costs for the industry, and poor data contributed to the problem in varying degrees. Data were misrepresented and measured. indicating collusion between industrial plants and auditors.. Manual testing remains a rare and costly method of data collection. Which factory pollutes the most? Its identification required high-quality, consistent data. And monitoring has not reduced pollution. and serve the primordial interests of individual politicians and bureaucrats.

CEMS cannot resolve the data problem. It also introduced India’s first cap-and-trade market for industrial particulate pollution, which was launched in Surat in 2019. The project initially involved the state governments of Gujarat, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, India’s three largest industrial states.

The establishment of CEMS proved politically and administratively difficult for a number of reasons. Technology was not tested.
Installing CEMS equipment will cost polluters crores of rupees – and will certainly result in resistance and reluctance from industrial factories. There was no precedent for using CEMS data as a basis for action against industrial leaders.
The use of CEMS equipment was introduced in Surat. The Surat textile industry burned coal and lignite..CEMS equipment required large chimneys..from which 373 plants were sampled. The pilot project began in early 2014 and ran until late 2018.

Internet problem
CEMS analyzer and flow meter, data logger unit to save records at site when internet is not available. Data Acquisition System (DAS), software for viewing and analyzing emissions data. Such as equipment were.. Industries in Surat often had poor internet connections, old computers, no dedicated IT staff, and faced occasional power cuts that required system resets. Robust IT and data storage systems proved challenging and time consuming.

sampling
A CEMS analyzer measured the concentration of suspended particulate matter or particles in the air from factory chimneys with a laser beam. Air samples were taken by hand and the particles were dried to remove moisture in the laboratory. Weighed.. But CEMS technology also enabled real-time emissions from the plant’s chimneys to be delivered directly to the on-board control room. Data transmitted. Monitoring may be increased on pollution violating plants.

Increased cost associated with lack of after sales service. Several months after installation, some plants found their equipment unusable.

wrong entry of data
Earlier one had to fetch the data manually and then feed that data into the equipment.. In this way the data could be falsified.. Like corruption.. Initially, CEMS used to transmit unreliable data. There were many cases of Regular data validation had to be done.. CEMS tools do not work automatically unless they are combined with regulatory measures that properly align plant and vendor incentives with regulatory measures.
Equipment not maintained, calibration audit failed. Was not transmitting data regularly.

Data from CEMS not used. Giving legal notice to the plant did not make much difference.

In 2019, the Gujarat Pollution Control Board launched its Emission Trading Scheme (ETS) at a cluster of industrial plants in Surat. The Surat ETS was the first cap-and-trade market in particulate emissions in the world.

Screen
A monitoring system was set up to know the amount of air pollution in Ahmedabad.. Screens were also installed at some places., through which central and state governments spent crores to reduce air pollution in that area., but Even though the situation improved not significantly, the amount of particulate matter i.e. PM-10 in the air was increasing.

the new order
In 2022-23, the GPCB was to set up real-time online water quality monitoring stations on Sabarmati, Mahisagar, Tapi, Damanganga rivers and Kankaria, Thol lake at an estimated cost of Rs 5 crore.
Bringing real time information of all online monitoring on a single platform Monitoring, Detection, Alerting – With Updates Rs. Central Command and Control-Secure Center was to be built at a cost of 7 crores.. In which research will be done from comparative graphical database. The hazardous waste management can be closely monitored through the closed loop of this system.

2500 tons of particles in the air
Gujarat produces 2,500 metric tonnes of polluted air every year. Humans and industries emit 332.8 metric tons of particulate matter, 1038 metric tons of sulfur dioxide, 629.5 tons of nitrogen oxides and 403.1 tons of ammonia annually. 500 million tons of organic waste is generated. Gujarat every year. Due to its burning, dangerous gases like nitrogen oxide and sulfur oxide got mixed directly in the air. According to an estimate, 800 liters of water was used to cook 1 kg of wheat.

death in gujarat
According to the Lancet report, in Gujarat in 2017

On the Central Forest in front of the various textile mills of Burat

Yavran department received complaints. Apart from Surat, complaints of river and ground water pollution were also received in South Gujarat including Vapi, Kadodara-Surat, Sugar Mill, so the Central Forest Environment Department has issued show cause notices to the concerned industries seeking clarification.
Apart from GACL Dahej plant, Bharuch, complaints were also made against Nyara Energy-Jamnagar. The Rasca pipeline was also causing pollution in Motero. Not only this, the denim-cotton factories located in the Naroda area of Ahmedabad were polluting the river and ground water.. Apart from this, the Kharikat canal was also responsible for the pollution.

Average level of PM 2.5 pollution in Ahmedabad in AQI
Pirana K265
Rakhiyal K 309
269 of Raikhad
Gift Whistle’s 249
232 of Navrangpura
239 of Chandkheda
159 satellites
166 of Bhopal

Poison of 4 cities
To live in Ahmedabad one has to drink poison in the air.
Ahmedabad 100, Surat 100, Vadodara 121 and Rajkot 115 were the most polluted cities in 2021-22.
Ahmedabad recorded 120, Rajkot 94, Surat 93 and Vadodara 95 in 2020-21. But during 2021-22
The pollution index in Vapi dropped from 88.09 to 79.95. The pollution index of Vadodara increased from 66.91 in 2009 to 89.09 in 2018.
In Rajkot city too, the pollution index increased from 66.76 to 70.62. Pollution decreased in Vapi, Ankleshwar, Vatva-Narol, Naroda-Odhav.

down staff
Instead of increasing the structure in GPCB, 223 posts were abolished. There were 105 vacancies in GPCB since 2008. GPCB is not taking any steps to fill 17% vacant posts of Environmental Engineers and Scientists.

A range of 17 highly polluting industries
The Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India, has classified the following 17 categories of industries as highly polluting industries, which will be closely monitored.

Gujarat Pollution Control Dashboard Line – Active: 283, Delayed: 137, Inactive: 179

17 Category of Highly Polluting Industries
The Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India have classified the following 17 category of Industries as highly polluting industries which are to be closely monitored.

GPCB helping to Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance petrol pump, for pollution

People dying in Ahmedabad and Surat due to Torrent power plant pollution

GPCB helping to Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance petrol pump, for pollution

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