Maharashtra government will provide cheap and assured electricity to farmers across the state through solar feeders in the next three years, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis today said.
He was speaking after performing the Bhumipujan (ground breaking ceremony) for first solar project under the ’Mukhyamantri Agricultural Solar Feeder’ scheme at Ralegan Siddhi.
Veteran social activist Anna Hazare was also present.
“The important decision of using solar powered feeders has been taken to become self sufficient in the power sector,” Fadnavis said.
“Initially, the plan was a plan to provide solar pumps to farmers. However, when we realised that there were limitations for distributing solar pumps, it was decided to connect the solar panels to feeders for supply to agricultural pumps for farmers to ensure power for 12 hours a day,” he added.
Fadnavis said currently each unit of electricity is generated at around Rs 6.50 and the cost will come down to Rs 3-3.25 when solar power is used.
Farmers will be provided electricity at Rs 1.20, he said.
“The money saved in generating power can be used for development of farmers. This scheme has been appreciated by the NITI Aayog and it has asked the other states to replicate this model,” he said.
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.