‘Total Shift From Coal Power Plants Not Feasible’

The Centre told the Supreme Court on Wednesday that it would not be possible to do a complete switch over from coal-based power plants—identified as the one of the biggest sources of pollution—to natural gas-based plants for electricity generation, due to the paucity of domestic natural gas.
The government said that the existing stock of natural gas can only meet 3-4 per cent of the total electricity requirement in the country and its import from other countries was not economically viable.
Appearing before a bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta, additional solicitor general A N S Nadkarni countered the submission of advocate Aparajita Singh, who is assisting the court as amicus curiae on NCR pollution menace, saying that at present it was very difficult to switch over from coal to natural gas for power generation and detailed consultations were required to be done before taking any decision.

coal based, Power Plants, Supreme Court