Patna, September 22: Chief Minister Samrat Chaudhary has launched a new financial incentive scheme for the promotion of solar energy by the state government, saying that the Bihar government will also provide additional financial support to the beneficiaries of Prime Minister Surya Ghar Free Electricity Scheme. 10,000 for one kilowatt solar plant, 20,000 for two kilowatt and 20,000 for three kilowatt. The Chief Minister inaugurated various energy schemes at Energy Auditorium, Patna on Tuesday. On this occasion, he unveiled the 'Chief Minister Solar Incentive Scheme' and flagged off 9 solar chariots for public awareness under the PM Surya Ghar Free Electricity Scheme. Additional financial assistance was also transferred to 25 thousand beneficiaries from the state government.
The Chief Minister said that the use of solar energy will reduce the electricity costs of domestic consumers and the subsidy burden on the government will also be reduced. He said that there are about 2.22 crore electricity connections in the state, of which 1.94 crore are household connections. About 1.60 crore families have zero electricity bill for the past one year. Samrat Chaudhary said that the Bihar government is spending about Rs 23 thousand crore on electricity subsidy, of which about Rs 5 thousand crore is spent on agriculture sector subsidy. In the next two years, work will be done to connect the agricultural feeders to 100 percent solar power, so that farmers can be supplied with solar power from 6 am to 6 pm. According to him, this can save the government up to Rs. 5 thousand crores in agricultural electricity subsidy.
The Chief Minister said that the electricity consumption in Bihar has increased from about 350 MW to 10,000 MW. In the next five years, keeping in mind the growing needs of industries and other sectors, a target has been set to develop 20,000 megawatts of electricity infrastructure. He said that it is not enough to increase electricity production, but transmission, distribution, grid and other infrastructure should also be strengthened at the same pace. Therefore, it is important to promote power storage and battery storage along with solar energy. The government will promote investment in solar, battery storage, pump storage and other green energy sectors. He said that work is in progress to bring a policy for green hydrogen as well, which has the potential to invest about 16,000 crore rupees in Bihar. The best performing Panchayat of the district will be given Rs 1 lakh, Municipal Corporation Rs 1 lakh, Municipal Council Rs 75 thousand and Nagar Panchayat Rs 50 thousand.
The program also saw the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the power distribution companies and JVICA to promote the use of solar energy. The Chief Minister spoke to the beneficiaries of Spool, Nalanda and Monger through video conferencing. Deputy Chief Minister Vijay Kumar Chaudhary, Deputy Chief Minister Bijender Prasad Yadav, Energy Minister Shalesh Kumar aka Bolo Mandal, Chief Secretary Pratiye Amrit, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Deepak Kumar and other senior officers were present in the programme.