Norochcholai turbine shut down after unbearable fly ash release
By Rathindra Kuruwita
Residents of villages near the Lakvijaya coal power plant at Norochcholai had complained to the North Western Province Environmental Authority (NWPEA) about an unbearable fly ash emanating from the power plant, yesterday, NWPEA Acting Director, Saman Lenaduwa told The Island.
"Villagers complained that fly ash came out of the plant around noon yesterday and that it was difficult for them to stay in their houses. This has occurred due to a technical issue at one of the machines and the engineers at the power plant have stopped it and are repairing it."
Asked whether it would affect the granting of the environmental protection licence to the power plant, as requested by ministry of power and the provincial council officials, Lenaduwa said the matter would be discussed during the meeting of the monitoring committee to which the NWPEA had handed over the review of the Norochcholai coal power plant, sidelining the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL) appointed committee on an order by the courts.
"Breakdowns can happen at any plant but what matters is that the engineers have stopped the plant to fix the issue. I will talk about this with the members of the committee when we meet," he said.
A resident of the area told The Island that the engineers at the plant had informed them that the incident had occurred due to a technical issue. "The problem is that they don’t maintain it properly. Such incidents happen from time to time. There was a lot of fly ash and it was impossible for us to stay in the village, but when we complained, the engineers closed down the faulty machine."
Indrajith Gallage, assistant general manager, Norochcholai Power Plant told The Island that there had been a technical issue yesterday and the engineers had effected the necessary repairs. "We have taken stringent measures to prevent any issue from happening, but unfortunately faults can occur."
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