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| Vijayawada to turn solar city |
| D Gopi / Chennai/ Vijayawada Sep 10, 2010, 00:09 IST |
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Vijayawada will be one among the 60 cities in the country that would be called solar cities, in the next five years. The project, for which the Centre has allocated over Rs 30 crore with each city getting Rs 50 lakh, is part of the 11th Plan.
The plan, designed by the Centre along with the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, is aimed at meeting 10 per cent of the energy demand through solar power.
Under this, street lights, energy used for water pumping and supply and maintenance of office lighting would be met through solar energy. This is expected to bring down the civic bodies’ expenditure by 10 per cent. Besides, the ministry had directed these cities to promote the use of non-conventional energy by private buildings, including apartments where solar energy can be adopted for common lighting and water supply.
In the first phase Vijayawada, Agra, Muradabad, Rajkot, Gandhinagar, Nagpur, Chandigarh, Gurgaon, Thane, Indore, Imphal, Kohima, Kalyan-Dombiwali, Dehradun, and Coimbatore would be covered. These cities have been asked to come up with the project implementation reports.
The Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) had already assigned the task of preparing a detailed project report (DPR) to Raipur-based SR Consultant (P) Ltd.
SR Consultant director Ritu S Jain said the master plan for the city would be ready in the next six months. It would include the existing apartments, commercial complexes, industries, individual houses, besides corporate establishments and the buildings of the VMC. “The preparation of the master plan is estimated to cost Rs 10 crore,” Jain said.
According to municipal commissioner G Ravi Babu, as much as 900,000 units of power is used a day in the city. Of the Rs 50 lakh, the VMC would spend Rs 10 lakh each on the DPR, establishing a solar energy cell and on implementing the project. The remaining Rs 20 lakh would be spent on creating awareness.
The Non-conventional Energy Development Corporation of Andhra Pradesh (Nedcap), which would act as a nodal agency, would help both the VMC and SR Consultants in implementing the project.
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