A new era is all set to dawn on the historic Golden Temple with the solar power adding the ingredient of modernisation and technology to the traditional cooking methods at its langar hall (community kitchen).
Conceived over five years back, the specially-designed solar project would help in reducing air pollution, in and around the Golden Temple — which is affecting the historical building—at least to some extent.
The new system would use steam, generated by the solar energy, to cook the food, instead of lPG and firewood — which will help in cutting down the pollution. Besides, the system may also reduce the cooking time, and the cost. Every day, no less than 50,000 people savour food at this internationally-accalimed langar hall, with the count touching one-lakh figure on holidays.
The solar energy system, amounting more than Rs 1 crore, would be set up and subsidised by the Punjab Energy Development Authority (PEDA). To identify the site for installation, a three-member team headed by PEDA director Balaour Singh visited Amritsar on Monday.
It was decided that the new system will be installed in the newly-constructed portion of the langar hall. “Once setup, the new system is expected to save half of the lPG fuel presently used to prepare food. On an average, over 100 lPG cylinders are used daily to cook food for the langar,” a senior PEDA official told The Pioneer.
The PEDA official said that the new system will be the third solar energy powered project at the Golden Temple after 25-kilowatt solar power project and a solar water heating system. The Shiromani Gurudwara Parbandhak Committee has already introduced similar system at Gurdwara Shaheed Ganj, a shrine situated near the Golden Temple, under which food is prepared with the use of steam, but it is not generated by solar energy. Similar projects are already in place at Shirdi Sai Baba Ashram and Brahma Kumari Ashram.
The then Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy Farooq Abdullah, way back in 2012, had suggested installing solar energy system to prepare food in Golden Temple’s community kitchen, and had asked the officials to carry out a feasibility study for the project.
PEDA had also sent Rs 1.40 crore proposal to the Centre in this regard after conducting surveys, which later hit a roadblock.
One of the devotee, Ravindra laund — the chairman of the Mumbai-based Ampar Group of Industries — had in 2012 agreed to bear the entire expenses of the Rs 1.5 crore solar energy powered cooking project during his visit to the Golden Temple. PEDA had claimed that the project would be completed and made functional in the next three-four months.