In Odisha, local economies bear the brunt of coal plant closure

Roadside shops selling steaming hot chai and samosas were among the first to down their shutters. The lull then spread gradually across this bazaar, located in front of a major thermal power plant in eastern India, with shop after shop winding up business after their sole customer base, the plant’s workers, were forced to leave after the plant’s closure four years ago.

“This road was a thoroughfare,” said Nrupati Jena, 65. “Workers thronged my shop through the day; I had a daily business of Rs 4,000.” Jena still sells biscuits, cigarettes, and paan [betel leaves] at the wide gate leading to the old plant, his shop the only one standing amidst shuttered ones.

“For three years now, my income has dropped to less than half,” he told Mongabay-India. “Nobody has asked us how we are surviving.”

The National Thermal Power Corporation, India’s largest power company, retired its 460-MW Talcher Thermal Power Station in the mining hub of Odisha in March 2021. The move was fiercely contested by worker unions in court, as worker unions cited insufficient notice – of less than a month – given to the contractual workers who lost their jobs. The court finally allowed the plant’s closure in October of the same year, said officials of...

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