NEW DELHI (BLOOMBERG) - Ten coal-fired power plants near India's capital of New Delhi are poised to miss a December deadline to install pollution control devices that would have curbed premature deaths linked to toxic emissions.
Eight of the plants, whose operators include Vedanta, Larsen & Toubro, and Uttar Pradesh Power Corp, have yet to order the required flue-gas desulphurisation units, according to the Central Electricity Authority.
The units can take as long as three years to secure and install, and it's unclear if the operators will be penalised by the authorities if they miss the deadline.
Air pollution levels in India's capital reached near record levels this month, forcing schools to shut and keeping residents indoors.
If the emissions standards were implemented nationwide, India could avoid more than 300,000 premature deaths through 2030, according to a study by the Bengaluru-based Centre for Study of Science, Technology & Policy.
"Non-compliance will come at the cost of human health," said Mr Sunil Dahiya, an analyst at Greenpeace India.
Indian power producers are under financial stress and have difficulty securing financing for the units that can cost as much as 10 million rupees (S$190,000) per megawatt, according to Mr M.S. Unnikrishnan, the chief executive officer at Thermax, which installs the devices.
Officials from Vedanta, Larsen & Toubro, Uttar Pradesh Power and the other generators poised to miss the deadlines, didn't respond to queries seeking comment.
The "monetised health benefits" outweigh the costs of installing the pollution control devices within the first few years, according to the CSTEP report. India's power and environment ministries didn't respond to requests for comment.
The air quality index, or AQI, was at 599 at some areas in New Delhi at 11.52am on Monday (Nov 11) after breaching 1,000 earlier this month, according to website AirVisual, which monitors air pollution around the world.
Readings above 300 are considered hazardous and anything below 50 is safe.
Coal-fired plants are one of the major sources of air pollution in the country, along with other factors such as emissions from vehicles, construction dust and burning of farm stubble. Flue-gas desulphurisation units can reduce sulphur dioxide emissions.
India's environment ministry first issued guidelines to thermal power plants in December 2015 to reduce emissions.
But after the industry raised concerns over cost of the equipment and other issues, the deadline was extended by as long as five years until December 2022.
