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Guwahati, Jorhat to be solar cities

By Staff reporter

GUWAHATI, May 14 � The Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has accorded �in-principle approval� to the proposal for developing Guwahati and Jorhat as solar cities.

It has asked the municipal bodies or the State Nodal Agency (SNA) concerned to engage consultants and submit their proposals for release of funds to the Ministry for the purpose. The approval of the MNRE came at a meeting held recently at New Delhi.

It needs mention here that the State has engaged the Assam Energy Development Agency (AEDA) as the SNA for the purpose. The SNA had submitted proposals also for Tinsukia, Dibrugarh and Silchar, besides Guwahati and Jorhat for the purpose of developing them into solar cities.

However, the MNRE is yet to make its stand clear on the above three urban areas of the State in this respect.

Official sources here said that the MNRE has embarked upon a mission to develop solar cities during the Eleventh Five Year Plan. The goal of the programme is to promote the use of renewable energy in urban area by providing support to the municipal bodies for preparation and implementation of a road map to develop their cities as solar cities.

The objectives of the programme are to enable the urban local self-governments to address the energy challenges at city-level, to provide a framework and support to prepare a master plan including assessment of current energy situation, future demand and action plans and to build capacity in the urban local self- government, among others.

The indicative target of 60 cities or towns with at least one in each state has been set of the Eleventh Plan period. An expenditure of Rs 30 crore is expected to be incurred under the programme during the said plan period.

The programme is sought to be designed in a manner that can help reduce at least ten per cent of the projected total demand of conventional energy at the end of five years. Under the programme, amounts up to Rs 50 lakh would be made available for each of the cities or towns depending on the size of the population and initiatives planned by the city council, administration etc.

So far, �in-principle approval� has been given to 37 cities for developing them as solar cities and of them 21 are yet to engage their consultants and submit proposals for release of funds to the MNRE.

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