Raipur and Bilaspur in Chhattisgarh, which have been included among 100 other cities in the country for ‘Smart Cities’ Mission, would be developed as ‘green cities’.
The Union Ministry of Urban Development will be utilising the services of the Indian Green Building Council (IGBC), a unit of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) to develop energy efficient cities, officials stated.
Notably , the the Centre has approved Raipur and Bilaspur to be developed as ‘Solar cities’ in Chhattisgarh.
So far, 55 existing cities in 27 States/UTs are being developed as solar cities in the country under ‘Development of Solar Cities Programme', senior government officials stated.
In fact, Raipur city was the only city among nine other cities in the country which was chosen by the Centre among the ‘Pilot Solar Cities’ for implementation of its ambitious ‘Development of Solar Cities Programme’ in 2013-14,as per the 2013-14 annual report of the Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy for 2013-14.
The other eight cities chosen for 'Pilot Solar Cities' programmes were-Rajkot, Faridabad, Shimla, Thane, Shirdi, Aizwal, Amritsar and Agartala.
As per the report, the development of the ‘Solar Cities Programme’ aims at minimum 10 per cent reduction in the projected demand of conventional energy at the end of five years, the report stated.
The aforesaid objectives are to be achieved through a combination of energy efficient measures and enhancing supply from renewable energy sources, it stated.
The Ministry assists the municipal corporations and the urban local bodies in preparation of a Master Plan for increasing energy efficiency and renewable energy supply in the city, setting up institutional arrangements for the implementation of the Master Plan and the awareness generation and capacity building activities. The Centre had set the target of supporting 60 cities/towns for development as ‘solar/green cities’.
Under the programme, during 2013-14, a total of 46 cities were sanctioned of which Master Plan of 39 cities were finalized.
The pilot project on the Grid Interactive rooftop small SPV power plant project was successfully implemented in ‘Chandigarh Model Solar City.’ This has demonstrated the feasibility of small grid connected SPV Rooftop in the country, it stated.
So far ( 2013-14), cumulative 6.25 MW have been sanctioned/approved under the ‘Solar City Programme’ (1.74 MW) and rooftop programme ( 4.51 MW) including 3.21 MWp in the year 2013-14 for Chandigarh city, the report stated.
Notably, Chhattisgarh achieved total commissioned capacity of 10.28 MW as on June 11, 2015 for Grid Connected Solar Power Projects under various schemes, stated a document of Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE).
During the period, the MNRE projects achieved capacity of 4 MW, the projects under Chhattisgarh State Policy ( 1.68 MW) and REC scheme projects ( 4.6 MW) in Chhattisgarh, it stated.
Raipur and Bilaspur cities which had been included in the National Smart City Mission will soon have to buckle up for the Stage-II of City Challenge competition which would be held for identifying the top scoring 20 cities for receiving funding from the Centre during the current financial year.
All the 100 city-level plans will be evaluated based on a set of elaborate criteria by the Union Urban Development Ministry, officials stated.
Each of these cities have been given Rs 2 crore each for preparation of city level Smart City plans in the next three months by the Ministry.
The 20 cities have been nominated by the respective State governments after the first round of competition, further to evaluation of all urban local bodies in each State as per a set of criteria including the existing service levels, institutional and financial capacities and past track record in implementation of JNNURM projects and reforms undertaken.
