MC to install solar plants to cut power cost

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, September 19

The Municipal Corporation of Bathinda (MCB) has made a plan to install solar plants to save its annual electricity bill of Rs 18 crore.

Under the project, the civic body would cover its office, 25,000 streetlight points and sewerage treatment plants. With this it would save around Rs 1 crore electricity bill per month.

Discussions are going on to install eight megawatt solar plant on the terrace of the MCB office and its various vacant sites in the city. MCB has also made a plan for taking a loan for this project.

MCB officials are claiming that the Rs 50 crore plan would benefit them for the next 25 years and it would save Rs 18 crore per year.

If a loan is taken for the purpose, it would be repaid in installments in the next three-four years and after that, the MCB would have zero expense on electricity.

To finalise the plan, Municipal Commissioner Dr Rishipal Singh on Tuesday held a meeting with Mayor Balwant Rai Nath and F&CC members.

It is learnt that the proposal regarding this would be tabled in the general house meeting, which is expected to be held next week. If it gets nod from the house, the work on it would be started at the earliest.

The commissioner also held discussion regarding making a sub-committee for the project, which would work on making detailed detail project report and selecting the land where the solar plants would be installed.

Apart from this, various other issues were also discussed in the meeting, which continued for around two hours. 

The MCB has also made a plan for purchasing four new road-sweeping machines in the city with the funds received under the Swachh Bharat Mission. 

The issue of installing LED streetlights zone-wise also came up. 

In the meeting, Senior Deputy Mayor Tarsem Goyal, Deputy Mayor Gurinderpal Kaur Mangat, F&CC members, councillors Harmander Singh and Nirmal Singh Sandhu and MCB officials were present.