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Kirloskar Brothers Limited (KBL) has proposed to the Telangana government that it would supply 100,000 solar agricultural pumpsets in one year and would replace all the existing pumpsets of farmers in the state with solar pumpsets in a span of 10 years.
The proposal was made by KBL’s associate vice president, Rajendra V Mahajan, and general manager, Ajay Shirdokar, at a review meeting held by chief minister, K Chandrasekhar Rao, here on Friday. They also came forward to take care of maintenance of the pumpsets for a period of 10 years.
According to an official press release, the chief minister wanted the project to be executed on a pilot basis so that the feasibility of providing solar pumpsets to all the farmers could be evaluated.
At present, 30 million units of power, worth Rs 15 crore, was being supplied to agricultural pumpsets free of cost every day. The chief minister asked the officials concerned to work out which would be costlier - supply of free power or provision of solar pumpsets.
Rao had set up a four-member committee of officials headed by industries principal secretary, Pradeep Chandra, to examine all aspects pertaining to provision of solar pumpsets to farmers.
Faced with acute shortage of power, the state government is mulling over introduction of solar pumpsets in the agricultural sector that will not only be environmental-friendly but will also ensure uninterrupted power supply to farmers. It has provided Rs 240 crore for this purpose in its maiden Budget.
