Nearly 218 people die each year in Delhi from thermal power plant fumes: Study

Every year, nearly 218 people die in Delhi from exposure to a toxic cocktail of fumes from the 12 thermal power plants located in a 300km radius of the national capital, an estimate by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) showed.

Sunil Dahiya, an analyst at CREA and the primary author of ”Health and economic impacts of unabated coal power generation in Delhi-NCR”, said the study estimated that the operation of the 12 power plants around the capital resulted in 218 deaths annually in Delhi, and 682 across Delhi-NCR, and more than 4,800 deaths across the country at 55% plant load factor—the ratio of average power generated by the plant to the maximum power that could have been generated in a given time—and more than 8,200 deaths at 100% PLF.

“The installation of emission control technologies would prevent 62% of these deaths across the country, which would translate to around 2,976 to 5,084 lives saved annually,” Dahiya said.