GUWAHATI, August 12: In an innovative effort to fight electricity crisis in forward areas, a private company has reached an understanding with the concerned authorities to provide solar power solutions to the Border Out Posts (BoPs) of Border Security Forces (BSF) in the North East region.
This was conveyed by the Managing Director (MD) Dhiraj Bhagchandka of Kirti Solar Limited (KSL), one of the largest and experienced solar photovoltaic & thermal companies in India during the 2-day workshop on 100 percent renewable energy future for North East in Guwahati which was concluded on Friday.
“We’re having an understanding with the concerned parties for the implementation of the said pilot projects within a shortest possible time. Even the BSF authorities are enquiring about the project,” says MD Dhiraj of Kolkata based KSL. “We’re also working on such kind of similar projects for the about 45 telecom towers (remote BSNL mobile towers) as a pilot projects across Arunachal Pradesh.”
The upcoming programmes of solarisation of the BoPs of BSF particularly in the North East also require cooperation from the banks too, the KSL chief said while speaking as a panelist at the Delhi based NGO Centre for Science and Environment organised workshop.
Last year, Union Minister of State for Home and top BSF officials confirmed that Gujarat frontier of the BSF would soon set up a five mega watt solar energy plant and also separately electrify 20 BoPs by solar energy.
There are two projects on solarisation, one is a five megawatt solar plant in Nalabet area in border district of Banaskantha and in another project 20 BoPs would be lightened up with solar energy, sources said.
The North East region of the country has a total installed capacity of 3,550 MW for electricity generation of which renewable energy (including solar energy) contributes to just 7.43 percent (263.72 MW) as on May 31, 2016, according to the Central Electricity Authority reports. The per capita consumption of electricity in the region where roughly around 4.85 million households do have access to electricity, is around 300 units per person per year against the national average of 914 units per persons per year. This depicts the disparity in the development of the region and the below par extent of access.
