The Chief Minister Harish Rawat has directed officials of the departments concerned to lay special emphasis on generation of renewable energy in the State. The CM said this while reviewing projects which are being operated by Uttarakhand Renewable Energy Development Agency (UREDA) in Dehradun on Friday.
Rawat instructed the officials to draft a detailed plan for the generation of power from renewable sources and other sources in the coming five years and to ensure that steps are taken for its execution in the state.The agency officials were directed by Rawat to ensure that dysfunctional solar street lights installed by UREDA in various rural areas of the state should be made operational without delay. While purchasing street lights in future, the officers should seek maintenance guarantee for 10 years from the agencies concerned, he said.
The number of staff in UREDA should be increased in various districts for effective execution of power projects and monitoring of solar street lights in rural areas. Ten pine needle based power generation projects should be established in various districts and unemployed youth in rural areas should be given one month training for its monitoring and maintenance. Solar rooftop power plants should be set up to meet the power demands in government buildings, he added.
During the meeting, the CM was informed that projects of 152 MW power capacity has been established while projects of 44.41 MW power capacity are under process. Uttarakhand Secretary (Power) Umakant Panwar, UREDA director Ashish Joshi, UREDA Chief Project Officer, AK Tyagi, UREDA deputy chief project officer CP Aggarwal and others were present in the meeting.