Maharashtra to extend CM's agri solar scheme across state; pilot introduced last year

Mumbai: After the success of a pilot project, the Maharashtra government plans to extend the chief minister's agricultural solar feeder scheme in the rest of the state. The pilot project of the scheme was introduced last year in two places in Ralegan Siddhi in Ahmednagar and Kolambi in Yawatmal.

"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.

Under this programme, the farmers are supplied power during the day with the help of solar generation. When asked about the privatisation process of power distribution for Malegaon and Kalwa-Mumbra sections, he said the project is on the fast track and the tendering process is underway now."The entire process is likely to be completed soon," he added.Pathak further said the privatisation of Bhiwandi is successful and hence we have decided to go in for privatisation of power supply in the two areas, where the bill collection is very low.[caption id="attachment_4494601" align="alignleft" width="380"] Representational image. Reuters.[/caption]"Already a number of companies have participated in the tendering process, including Torrent Power, which manages the power loom 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.When asked about the transmission and distribution losses incurred by state discom Mahavitaran, he said the company could reduce it from the past 17.50 percent to 14.50 percent."We do not claim that we have achieved and met every target but to a large extent we have performed and brought the power scene to a good position as regards supply, distribution and reducing the problems which were faced earlier," he said.