J&K chief secy to target 30,000 solar installations by March under PM Surya Ghar Yojana

Jammu, Jan 4 (IANS) Jammu and Kashmir Chief Secretary Atal Dulloo on Friday chaired a meeting with officials to assess the progress made in installing solar rooftops under the PM Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana in the Union Territory (UT) firsthand and set a target of 30,000 such installations by March 2025, an official statement said.

Dulloo emphasised the need for the concerned departments to carry out rigorous Information, Education, and Communication (IEC) campaigns to generate awareness about this scheme.

“He (The Chief Secretary) called for creating awareness material in local languages for easy comprehension, besides sending bulk SMSes to the targeted consumers,” the statement added.

“He directed reaching out to each panchayat with full-fledged programmes distributing IEC materials in local languages, besides demonstrating educational videos and success stories there. He enjoined upon the discoms to designate nodal officers among their engineers to accomplish these tasks with relevant feedback to their higher-ups.”

The Chief Secretary observed that such schemes are reform-oriented with direct benefits accruing to the public.

He asked for making concerted efforts to increase the number of applicants and timely installations in favour of each of them.

“He also fixed a target for the discoms to achieve installation of around 30,000 solar rooftops across the districts of the UT,” the statement said.

“He advised intensifying the outreach campaign till the desired outcomes are achieved.”

The Principal Secretary of the Power Development Department, H. Rajesh Prasad, said during the meeting that financial institutions/banks are extending loans at a rate of seven per cent to make the installations easier for consumers.

Besides, the central financial assistance is directly disbursed among the applicants in their bank accounts only after the vendors install the solar rooftops for 15 days.

He revealed that the savings under this scheme, even if installed after taking credit from banks, are lucrative.

He said that a subsidy of Rs 33,000/kw is being given by the Union government with an additional subsidy of Rs 3000/kw by the state government up to the installation capacity of 3 kw in favour of domestic consumers.

It was further disclosed that around 11,000 applications had been received by the respective discoms in Jammu and Kashmir divisions while 617 installations had been done till date.

It was added that the savings are going to increase with future revisions in power tariffs.

It was said that this scheme is going to substantially improve our progress on restricting Aggregate Technical and Commercial losses (AT&C) losses, bringing efficiency in power supply to the consumers.

Later, the Chief Secretary reviewed the solarisation of government buildings through the Jammu and Kashmir Energy Development Agency (JAKEDA).

“He (Chief Secretary) asked the department to bring further improvement in the implementation of this scheme so that the necessary wattage (electricity) is achieved before its sunset date,” the statement said.

Jammu and Kashmir Commissioner Secretary, Science and Technology, Saurabh Bhagat, while informing the meeting about the overall progress of this scheme said that 4,108 buildings had been covered, thereby installing a capacity of 35.2 MW.

In addition, the vendors had installed a capacity of 13.6 MW as of now, Bhagat added.

Regarding the overall quantum of work, it was informed that under Capex, a total of 70 MW capacity of grid- connected solar rooftops would be installed on government buildings with an additional 238 MW under RESCO mode by NHPC and JAKEDA cumulatively.

–IANS

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