Central PSU under the Ministry of Power NTPC Ltd has developed an infrastructure at Rihand project in Uttar Pradesh to transport fly ash in bulk to cement plants, located at distance, at a cheaper cost. The development is in line with NTPC's commitment towards 100 percent utilization of fly ash from power plants.

As per a statement issued by NTPC Ltd, the first rake of 59 BOXN types of railway wagons carrying 3450 Metric Tonne (MT) of fly ash was flagged off from NTPC’s Rihand Super Thermal Power station by Shri Balaji Iyengar, Executive Director (NTPC Rihand) for ACC Cement Manufacturing Plant, Tikaria, U.P. located at a distance of 458 km, in presence of other senior officials of NTPC Rihand.

To transfer the first tranche, officials from NTPC Rihand approached East Central Railway along with leading cement producers to commence the supply of fly ash in BOXN wagons covered with tarpaulin. The innovation will pave the way for efficient and safer transportation of fly ash from the power plants to cement production units located at a distance in larger quantities.

The effort marks the beginning of a new era for transportation of fly ash from a remote location to a consumption center, enabling power plants for upgrading the utilization of fly ash with the availability of additional material loading avenues for Indian Railways and accessibility of fly ash to the cement plants in an environment-friendly manner at a competitive price. During the financial year 2019-20, almost 44.33 million tonnes of fly ash were utilized for various productive purposes, being 73.31% of the ash generated.