Maharashtra to supply solar electricity to farmers

Post the success of Chief Minister’s Agricultural Solar Feeder Scheme at two places in Maharashtra, the state government has announced that it now plans to widen the scheme to the rest of the state.

The scheme was launched last year in Ralegan Siddhi in Ahmednagar and Kolambi in Yawatmal to provide solar-generated electricity to farmers through the day.

“The scheme is a total success and will be extended to the entire state. This is a game changer and solar units will be set up in the government land where there is evacuation facility,” Maharashtra State Electricity Transmission Company (Mahatransco) director Vishwas Pathak said.

On the subject of privatizing power distribution for Malegaon and Kalwa-Mumbra sections, Pathak said that the tendering process is in progress and “The entire process is likely to be completed soon”

“By now a number of companies have participated in the tendering process, including Torrent Power, which manages the powerloom town of Bhiwandi and the best suited one would be picked up,” he added.

Pathak also said there has been a growth of power consumers from 2.15 crore to 2.45 crore and to meet this growth, the company is taking every effort.

“There was an acute shortage of meters recently due to the fact that 16 lakh meters supplied by two companies, one from Hyderabad and the other from UP, were found to be faulty and had to be replaced on priority. These two companies have been blacklisted, he said and added that the legal process was underway for “recovery of losses,” he said.