Friday, January 10, 2014: The union ministry of new and renewable energy has rejected the proposal seeking 50 per cent grant for the Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC)’s ‘Solar City’ project. The ministry has given approval for only 30 per cent financial help for the solar project worth Rs 25 million.
The municipal corporation, on the other hand, is not prepared to incur heavy expenditure as it was expecting up to 50 per cent subsidy. The project, aimed at promoting use of renewable energy sources and adoption of energy efficiency measures, has thus taken a backseat.
“In the last meeting, we urged joint secretary and director in the ministry A K Tripathi to allot special funds considering its financial condition. During the meeting, the ministry officials had assured to forward the proposal to higher authorities. But now, it seems that the ministry will follow the rule of giving only 30 per cent subsidy,” TOI quoted AMC’s executive engineer Sikander Ali as saying.
Earlier, civic body officials including municipal commissioner Harshdeep Kamble had met the senior officials in union ministry of new and renewable energy to submit the proposal of ‘Solar City’ project.
The solar city project is all about promoting the renewable energy-based options including solar, wind, biomass, small hydro, waste to energy, etc. The civic body is entrusted with this job along with the promotion of energy efficiency measures to bring down the conventional energy consumption level.
