POINTWISE RESPONSE TO QUERIES RAISED DURING 24TH EAC MEETING HELD ON 23.01.2019 REGARDING TEMPORARY PERMISSION FOR TRANSPORTATION OF COAL BY ROAD
Point i. Detailed progress report of the construction activities of the power project along with milestones and expenditure incurred till date out of total project cost.
Response: Construction works of 2 X 660 MW Khargone STPP of NTPC Ltd. has been awarded to M/s L&T on 31.03.2015 as an EPC package. The works are in full swing with Unit#1 Boiler light up completed in Dec 18. Unit#1 TG put on barring gear on 03.02.2019 and preparedness for steam blowing for Unit#1 is in full swing. Synchronization of Unit#1 is planned by March, 2019. CHP works are also in progress and various structures like Wagon Tippler, Crusher House, TPs, Stacker Re-claimers are erected and in advanced stages of completion (80% completed) ready for start of commissioning.
Supply of coal is envisaged from NTPC’s captive mine Pakri Barwadih (Hazaribag, Jharkhand) through railway line. The take off point is located at Nimarkhedi station (Khandwa district), 37 km from Khargone STPP plant. Railway line from Khandwa to Nimarkhedi is presently meter gauge & being converted into broad gauge by Indian Railway through customer funding model for which NTPC has deposited Rs. 487 Crores in March, 2015. Total length of broad gauge conversion is about 42 Km from Khandwa to Nimarkhedi. Likely completion date of gauge conversion is March, 2019. The progress report is attached as Annexure-1.
Investment approval date : 31/03/2015 Unit#1 progress & milestone Milestone As per schedule Actual/ Anticipated Boiler hydro test 31/03/2018 31/03/2018 Boiler Light up 30/09/2018 29/12/2018 Turbine on barring gear 31/08/2018 03/02/2019 Synchronization date 30/11/2018 30/03/2019 Unit on Full Load 31/12/2018 31/05/2019 (depending on EC amendment)
Expenditure details: - Total project cost: Rs. 9871 crores Expenditure incurred as on Jan, 2019: Rs. 6947 crores
[1] Point ii. Reasons for delay in setting up railway line and siding from Nimarkhedi to Power Plant. Detailed progress report of the activities completed and balance activities along with timelines.
Response:
Reason for delay: a. The TPP project was awarded in March, 2015 to M/s L&T. The land acquisition for railway corridor took time and the contract work for outside railway siding works of 37 km from Nimarkhedi to Khargone STPP was awarded to M/s RITES on 02.09.2016, after a lag of 1.5 years. M/s RITES has further divided this work into 11 packages (05 civil packages+02 bridge packages + 01 supply of rail package + 01 electrical works +01 S&T works + 01 package for building works) for which awards were placed during March, 2017 to Sep., 2018. The package for S&T works has been awarded in the month of Sep., 2018. b. The package 3 & 4 (from chainage 24 to chainage 29.8 KM) earlier awarded on M/s GDCL were terminated on 08.05.2018 due to non-performance of M/s GDCL and were re-awarded on M/s L&T on 09.08.2018. These packages involve huge quantity of earth work and concreting. Precious time was lost due to non-performance of M/s GDCL. After re-award, work is in full swing and progress is being monitored from Apex level of NTPC on continuous basis. c. The initial tendering of Package 7 i.e. Major Bridges was done by RITES in March, 2017 and was annulled in August, 2017 as the price quoted by lowest bidder was very high w.r.t. cost estimate. Package was again tendered and could be awarded in Feb., 2018. Precious working time was lost on account of this also.
Likely completion date for railway siding is May, 2019 without OHE & S&T, June/ July 2019 with S&T without OHE and Dec., 2019 with OHE. The executed quantities and completion schedule for various activities of Railway siding package are as under:
Railway Siding Package Progress Report Description Scope Executed Completion timeline Earth Work 90,00,000 Cum 77,00,000 Cum April 19 Concreting 1,90,000 Cum 1,52,000 Cum April 19 No of Bridges (Slab & Girder) 130 Nos. 105 Nos. April 19 Track Laying (including loop 48 Km 16.71 Km May 19 lines) Fitness of track ------May 19 S&T ------June/July 19 OHE ------Dec 19
[2] Point iii. Any certification from Railways regarding expected date of completion for converting meter gauge to broad gauge from Khandwa to Nimarkhedi Railway station.
Response: Expected date of completion of conversion of meter gauge to broad gauge from Khandwa to Nimarkhedi Railway station is March, 2019. This is mentioned at point no. 9, page 3 of MOM of 17th Coordination meeting held between Indian railways and NTPC. The copy of same is attached herewith as Annexure-2. The status of physical progress reviewed by NTPC on 08.02.19 on above route is also attached as Annexure-3.
Point iv. The routes from which coal is transported is firmed up out of 6 routes proposed. Reasons for proposing to transport only 2000 TPD whereas the coal requirement for Unit-1 is about 9800 TPD.
Response:
Firmed up Route for coal transportation route out of 6 routes:
Out of the six routes only one route is being firmed up, which is Route-5 (as given in traffic study report) from M/s Nepa ltd. Railway siding to Plant site via Nepa phata, Sanawad and Bediya having total length 145.2 km. CMD, NEPA Ltd. has given a consent letter to NTPC for use of their railway siding for unloading of NTPC coal which is attached herewith as Annexure-4. Bediya and Dakhalgaon railway siding are not yet ready (Route-1 & 2) and Indian Railways denied permission to unload coal at Singa ji Plant siding, Beed siding and Khandwa goods yard (route-3, 4 & 6). Hence, only route-5 is possible to use as on date.
Reasons for proposing to transport only 2000 TPD whereas the coal requirement for Unit-1 is about 9800 TPD.
As per the current progress of NTPC Khargone Unit#1, it is planned to start synchronization, trial run, commissioning on coal in the month of March/April, 2019. The 72 hrs trial run on full load as per CERC guideline is also planned subsequently. As per CEA guideline the commissioning coal requirement of one unit of 660 MW is 2 lakh MT including trial run and 72 hrs full load operation. This 2 lakh tonne coal shall be brought from NTPC’s Captive coal mine Pakri-Barwadih to M/s Nepa Ltd. siding by Indian railway and from NEPA siding to plant site by road. Thus, only commissioning coal requirement of one unit of 660 MW which is 2 lakh tonne as explained above, shall be brought by road from M/s Nepa Ltd. Siding.
This 2 lakh tonnes will be brought through maximum 3 rakes of coal in a week which amounts to 3750X3=11,250 Tonnes of coal. This 11,250 tonnes of coal from railway siding will be transported by 20 tonner tippers/ dumpers over 5-6 days with maximum
[3] capping of 2000 tonnes per day with corresponding maximum daily tippers movement 200 to & fro. These coal will be progressively stacked for use during trial run/ equipment commissioning from March, 2019 onwards and for 72 hrs continuous full load operation subsequently.
Justification of excluding full load daily requirement of 9800 TPD from road transportation:
As per the current progress of broad gauge conversion from Khandwa to Nimarkhedi, it is expected to be completed by March, 2019 and NTPC Khargone railway siding is expected to be completed by Jun/July., 2019 with S&T and without OHE and by Dec., 2019 with OHE. Hence the coal requirement of 9800 TPD post COD, will be met through NTPC’s own railway siding only.
Point v. Legible map showing proposed routes on toposheet and google satellite image to be produced in hard copy (A0/A1).
Response: Annexure 5 gives the hard copy (A0 size) of the finalised one route i.e. from M/s Nepa Ltd. Siding to Khargone STPP on toposheet while Annexure 6 gives the route on Google satellite image.
Point vi. Details of roads viz. Make of road whether it is concrete, WBM, Bitumen, Kutchha road etc.; Type of road whether it is NH, SH, PWD or Rural Road. Capacity and load bearing strength of the road to take up 20 ton truck in addition to the tare weigh of 10-15 tons.
Response:
The detailed descriptions of selected road i.e. Route-5 (From Nepa Ltd. Siding to Plant) having total length 145.2 km as desired are Tabulated below:
Classification Based on Ownership of Road:
Section of road Approx. Type of road Ownership/ Distance Custodian NTPC Khargone to Bediya 20 km PWD PWD Khargone Bediya to Sanawad 19 km Major District MPRDC Indore Road Sanawad to NEPA Phata 92 km SH-27 MPRDC Indore NEPA phata to M/s NEPA 14 km PWD PWD Burhanpur Total Length 145 km
[4] Classification Based on Make of Road:
Make of road Black Top Concrete WBM/ Kutchha (Bitumen) road Length in km 142.1 3.2 0
NTPC Ltd. have received permissions from all the above custodians of the road to ply coal trucks (20 T capacity) on the roads, the copies of which are given in Annexure-7. As per the permission letters of various custodians, it is understood that the load bearing and the strength of the road is sufficient to ply coal carrying 20 T trucks.
Point vii. Justification for exceeding the total traffic (baseline and proposed traffic) beyond Design volumes of the roads at certain places. Any alternate routes available. If not, mitigation measures thereof.
Response: Baseline traffic count at 16 location along Route-5 i.e. from M/s Nepa Ltd. Siding to Plant have been conducted. Out of 16 location, 5 location were fixed on roads passes through urban area and 11 location on roads passes through Rural area. The locations are marked as CP, which can be seen on Map attached in Annexure-8. Traffic volume carrying capacity calculation were done and the same is attached as Annexure-5. Perusal of table given in Annexure-8 shows that the road widths are adequate for the existing and proposed traffic at all the traffic census point except at two location i.e. CP-10 (Near Indian Oil Pump, Sanawad) & 16 (Near River Bridge at Sanawad) in urban area and at three locations i.e. CP- 18 (Deshgaon village), 20 (Near Jain dhaba, Chhaigaon Makhan village) & 23 (Asir village) in rural area.
Traffic volume exceeds DSV limits of the road in urban area during peak hour. Detailed analysis of the hour-wise traffic volume for the 24 hour period was done and it has been found that existing traffic remains high during day time only during 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, which can be seen in Annexure-9. Keeping this in mind, it is suggested that movement of coal carrying trucks to be restricted to only 16 hours during 5:00 PM to 9:00 AM.
Thus, the coal transportation will take place when the traffic is within DSV limits.
In rural area, although CP- 18, 20 & 23 exceed the DSV limit, it is corresponding to level of service (LoS) B. Section 6.1 of IRC 64:1990 states “under normal circumstances, use of LoS B is considered adequate for the design of rural highways”. Hence, the DSV is assumed to be exceeded for LoS B. In section 6.2 IRC 64:1990 further states “...... under exceptional circumstances, LoS C could also be adopted for design.” Hence, if we consider LoS C the traffic volumes at all the three census points will fall within the DSV limit for LoS C. Furthermore, it can be seen that irrespective of the level of service, the maximum capacity is never exceeded at the above three census points, therefore, no additional mitigation measures are proposed.
[5] A comparative statement of DSV at LoS B & C for the above three locations is given below:
CP Location Total traffic Road DSV at %utilisation DSV at %utilisation %utilisation volume after width, LoS B, of DSV at LoS C, of DSV at of maximum 1 year, m PCU/day LoS B PCU/day LoS C capacity PCU/day 18 Near Dhangaon 15,495 7.3 15,000 103.3 21,000 73.8 51.6 Village 20 Near jain Dhaba, 19,524 7.2 15,000 130.2 21,000 93.0 65.1 Chhaigaon Makhan Village 23 Near Asir village 15,827 8.5 15,000 105.5 21,000 75.3 52.7
Any alternate routes available: The present proposed route is the widest route available from Nepanagar to Plant. All other routes explored are through villages and narrow. The alternates are village level road while a major portion of the proposed route is good condition blacktopped state highway.
Mitigation measures:
The movement of coal carrying trucks will be restricted to only 16 hours during 5:00 PM to 9:00 AM.
A team of traffic marshals will be deployed in and around Sanawad.
Point viii. Justification for incremental concentrations and details of input data such as weather conditions/meteorology, road type and condition, emissions from the trucks, fugitive emission & road dust, etc. Dispersion modelling is to be run before the committee.
Response: Dispersion modelling to determine the incremental ground level concentration of pollutants due to plying of trucks had been done using CALINE 4 model with the following assumptions:
Emissions due to fuel burning in engine as well as fugitive dust likely to get airborne due to movement of tyres on the road on the basis of actual measurement of silt at site & its comparison with the values recommended in AP-42 and taking the higher of the two, were considered in the report. The airborne particulate emission for PM10 and PM2.5 are calculated as 0.5259 g/VKT and 0.1273 g/VKT.
Worst case scenarios of traffic volume i.e. 200 Tippers movement daily i.e. 13 tippers per hour considering restricted movement for 16 hours was taken.
[6] Input data is summarised as follows:
Truck movement & Capacity of Trucks: Max. quantity of coal to be transported 2000 MT/day Carrying capacity 20 tonne HP 178 Average Speed 40 km/hr Hourly movement of to & fro trucks 13 Nos. Meteorology: Season Winter (worst case) Wind speed 0.7 m/s (from IMD data) Prevalent wind direction 45 ° (NE) (from IMD data, for worst case of December/January) Temperature 14.7°C (from IMD data) Mixing Height 525 m (from IMD data) Stability class A (worst case) Standard deviation 10° (standard assumption) Receptor point 20 m from the center of road Road type Paved Emission from truck due to fuel consumption as per norms:
Units NOx PM SO2 Capacity of Diesel Engine g/kWh (Stage : Euro IV) Emission permitted 3.5 0.02 Resultant KWH KWH 135.28 135.28 135.28 Emission from one truck g/truck/hour 473.48 2.7056 67.284 Emission from 1 truck/km g/km 11.84 0.06764 1.6821 Emission from 1 truck/mile g/mile 18.9392 0.10822 2.6914 (Source: Emission standards for new heavy-duty engines—applicable as per Bharat Stage IV (applicable nation wide since April 2017)
Out put i.e. Max. GLC Predicted at receptor distance of 20 m from center of road
Pollutant Concentrations, Receptor No. Section µg/m3
PM10 0.614 86 S07 (at Sanawad)
PM2.5 0.172 86 S07 (at Sanawad)
SO2 1.98 86 S07 (at Sanawad)
NOX 13.07 86 S07 (at Sanawad)
[7] It has been noted in the minutes of meeting that these above values are not pragmatic.
Hence, a further exercise has been conducted on the selected Route-5 (Nepa Nagar to Khargone TPP) to arrive at more pragmatic values by amending the distance of receptors from 20 m to 10 m from the center of the road.
Out put value i.e Max. GLC Predicted at receptor distance of 10 m from center of the road:
Pollutant Concentrations, µg/m3 Receptor No. Section PM10 1.028 86 S07 PM2.5 0.288 86 S07 SO2 3.16 86,120 S07,S09 NOX 22.13 86 S07
The input out file along with the route map & receptors is given in Annexure-10. The model will be run in front of the committee with the above inputs.
[8]
ANNEXURES