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CPWD: no fly ash zone

CPWD: no fly ash zone Should fly ash be treated as waste or a useful byproduct? The Indian government and its Central Public Works Department (cpwd) don't agree on this matter. The result: gross underutilisation of this coal combustion product, leading to environmental damages and financial loss.

The government promotes the use of fly ash in construction work. President A P J Abdul Kalam recently called for raising its utilisation from the current 27 per cent to 100 per cent. The Bureau of Indian Standards (bis) now allows blending 35 per cent fly ash with cement, against the earlier 25 per cent. The government has also made the use of 25 per cent fly ash mandatory in the manufacture of clay bricks/tiles/blocks by units located within 100 kilometres of coal- or lignite-based thermal power plants (tpp). But its enthusiasm for fly ash has been crushed not only by private brick makers (see Down To Earth,

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