New Delhi, Oct 13 (IANS): India's largest power producer, National Thermal Power Corporation Limited (NTPC Ltd), has started to collaborate with cement manufacturers across the country to supply fly ash to achieve 100 per cent utilisation of the by-product produced during power generation.

NTPC is leveraging the Indian Railways' sprawling network to transport fly ash in an economical and environment-friendly manner.

NTPC Rihand is the first power plant in Uttar Pradesh to send conditioned fly ash to cement manufacturers. The plant recently transported 3,834 metric tonne (MT) of conditioned fly ash in 59 BOXN wagons to Dalmia Cement (Bharat) Ltd.'s plant at Nagaon, Assam.

Earlier, the rail rakes of conditioned fly ash were dispatched to Associated Cement Companies (ACC) plants at Tikaria (Uttar Pradesh), Kymore (Madhya Pradesh) and Ropar (Punjab).

During the financial year 2019-20, nearly 44.33 million tonne fly ash was utilised for various productive purposes. NTPC produces nearly 65 million tonne ash annually of which 80 per cent (nearly 52 million MT) is fly ash.

At present, nearly 73 per cent of ash is being utilized for production of cement and fly ash bricks, road embankment construction, mine-filling, low-lying land development and ash dyke raising.

With an installed capacity of 62.9 GW, NTPC Group has 70 power stations comprising 24 coal, seven combined cycle gas/liquid fuel, one hydro, 13 renewables with 25 subsidiary and JV power stations. The Group has more than 20 GW of capacity under construction, including 5 GW of renewable energy projects.