Govt raises solar power target five-times to 1,00,000 MW by 2022

NEW DELHI, June 17: The government on Wednesday raised the solar power generation capacity addition target by five times to 1,00,000 Megawatt (MW) by 2022, which will entail an investment of around Rs 6 lakh crore. "Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, today gave its approval for stepping up of India's solar power capacity target under Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM) by five times, reaching 1,00,000 MW by 2022," an official release said. "The Cabinet decision is a giant step towards creating clean and sustainable energy source in the country," Communication and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters after the Cabinet meeting. According to the statement, the target will principally comprise of 40 Gigawatt (GW) (solar) rooftop and 60 GW through large and medium scale grid connected solar power projects. With this ambitious target, India will become one of the world's largest green energy producers, surpassing several developed countries, it added. "The total investment in setting up 100 GW will be around Rs 6,00,000 crore. In the first phase, the Government of India is providing Rs 15,050 crore as capital subsidy to promote solar capacity addition in the country," it said. This capital subsidy will be provided for Rooftop Solar projects in various cities and towns, for Viability Gap Funding (VGF) based projects to be developed through the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) and for decentralised generation through small solar projects.   Union Cabinet while broadly approving the urban component of 'Housing for All' scheme on February 19, had desired an Inter-Ministerial Committee to further fine tune the Urban Housing Mission. The Committee subsequently held a series of meetings before coming out with their recommendations. According to the Cabinet decision, interest subsidy under Affordable Housing through Credit Linked Subsidy component of Urban Housing Mission would increase by Rs 50,000 to Rs 1,10,000 for each beneficiary. At present, housing loans for affordable housing would be available at only 4 per cent. The Urban Housing Mission will be taken up in all the 4,041 cities and towns. Initially, focus would be on 500 cities and towns with a population of one lakh and above each, as they account for about 75 per cent of urban population. Hundred such cities will be included in Phase-1 (20015-March, 2017) and 200 cities in Phase-2 (April, 2017-March 2019) and the remaining would be covered during 2019-22. The Credit Linked Subsidy Scheme would however, be implemented in all cities and towns from the current year onwards. Under the Housing Mission in urban areas, houses of upto 30 sqm carpet area would be built with basic civic infrastructure like water, sewerage, roads, power and telephone lines and social infrastructure such as community centres, parks and play grounds, livelihood centres etc. States/UTs are given flexibility in this regard to make necessary changes as deemed appropriate by them in consultation with the Central Government. States/UTs are also given the flexibility in appraising and approving the housing projects at their level to enable faster implementation of the scheme. Registration of houses built under the Mission would either be in the name of women or jointly in the name of wife and husband.