(Excerpt from President A P J Abdul Kalam’s address to the nation on the eve of the country’s 56th Republic Day):
“As you are aware, the use of coal for power generation results in an increased quantum of fly ash production, which has reached about 100 million tonnes per year. All out efforts are needed to utilize this fly ash not only from environmental considerations, but also to avoid land usage for fly ash umping. Though there has been a steady progress in fly ash utilization from 1990, we have a long way to go to reach the target of 100 per cent fly ash utilization. It is reported that the agricultural increase of grains is around 15 per cent, green vegetables 35 per cent and root vegetables 50 per cent, when fly ash is mixed with soil. Toxicity tests have proved that there is no toxic element due to fly ash. But it has higher nutrients due to increased availability of iron and calcium. Fly ash can become a wealth generator by making use of it for producing ‘green building’ materials, roads, agriculture etc. Full utilization of the generating stock will provide employment potential for three hundred thousand people and result in a business volume of over Rs.4,000 crore.”