No more thermal power plants around NCR can be shut: CAQM informs Supreme Court
New Delhi: Even as the air quality once again dipped to the "very poor" category on Friday, the Supreme Court was informed that no more thermal power plants around the Capital could be shut down.
The Supreme Court had, in the last hearing, asked the Centre to check if more thermal power plants can be shut down in addition to the six that had already been closed. The court had also asked the Centre to see if any alternative power source can be arranged.
However, on Friday, the CAQM told the court that as per its detailed deliberations no more thermal power plants around the NCR can be shut. In addition, when asked whether the sic plants can be shut beyond December 15, the Ministry of Power said this would also not be feasible.
The situation was reviewed in consultation with Power System Operation Corporation Limited (POSOCL) and the ministry of power was of the considered view that while the number of thermal power plants that can be shut down cannot be further increased, even shutting down of the six plants within 300 km radius of Delhi would also not be feasible beyond 15.12.2021, in view of the electricity scenario, the panel said.
Meanwhile, the AQI was at 314 as the city's maximum temperature settled at 23.7 degrees Celsius, a notch below the season's average while the relative humidity at 5.30 pm was 56 per cent, the weather office said.
The minimum temperature recorded at Safdarjung Observatory, which provides representative data for Delhi, was 9 degrees Celsius, normal for this time of the year.
The weather office has forecast shallow fog in the coming days and said that Saturday's maximum and minimum temperatures are likely to hover around 23 and 9 degrees Celsius.
Buses for govt staffers
Amid deteriorated winter air quality in the city, the Delhi government has introduced bus service for its employees from 14 destinations to the Secretariat, so they shun their private vehicles, officials
said.
The government is also running around 700 additional buses on various routes under 'Paryawaran Sewa' to encourage public transport and minimize air pollution.
The Delhi Transport Corporation launched the special bus service on November 29 from various residential colonies housing the Delhi government officials. These include Gulabi Bagh, Mayur Vihar Phase III, Karkardooma, Timarpur, Hari Nagar and Dwarka to the Secretariat from where the Delhi government functions, a transport official said.
