The park would come up in an area of 12,000 acres
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Bengaluru: Stung by criticism on poor management of the power sector, the state government has decided to make amends by setting up the biggest solar energy park at Pavagada at a cost of around Rs 20,000 crore. Energy minister D.K. Shivakumar, who held a meeting with farmers in Pavagada on Monday, said that the park would come up in an area of 12,000 acres with farmers as partners in the project. The farmers will enter into a 30-year lease agreement with the government which will pay them Rs 21,000 per acre per year. The lease amount would be enhanced by five percent once in two years.
The Centre and state will jointly invest in the project. While the state will contribute 50% of the project cost, the Centre will bear the rest of the expenditure. Farmers have been asked to submit their land records to the Tumakuru DC by October 30. Once the documents are submitted to the DC, processing of the project would begin in three months as there is no land acquisition involved , he said.
Taking a dig at BJP leaders for their comments on the power situation in the state ,Mr Shivakumar said that the Centre had allocated only an additional 200 Mw to the state, as against its request of over 1000 Mw. A recent letter from the Union energy ministry said that Karnataka would be allocated an additional 200 Mw by cutting 50 Mw allocation to Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, 20 Mw to Kerala and 80 Mw to Tamil Nadu. Even under scheduled allocation, the state is receiving only 1187 Mw of the allocated 2388 MW. BJP leaders were unnecessarily politicising the issue, he said.
Meanwhile, the power generation from wind energy has dropped drastically. While demand for power is around 7500 MW, the supply is only 6152 Mw. “To combat the power situation, the government will take a major decision on power purchase as well as production. “A meeting of all stakeholders has been convened on October 1. At the moment, the exchange rate of power is around Rs 11 per unit. The only problem is the availability of a power corridor,” he said.
( Source : deccan chronicle )
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