Jammu: Union Minister of State in PMO Dr Jitendra Singh on Tuesday oversaw the trial run of solar plant installed in Samba village of Panchayat Palli, which is the venue of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s programme to mark “Panchayati Raj Diwas” on April 24.
The 500 kilowatt solar plant has been completed and installed in a record time of 18 days by Central Electronics Limited (CEL), a PSE under the Union Ministry of Science & Technology, headed by Dr Jitendra Singh. With this solar plant becoming operational, the village with about 348 households will become carbon-free.
Union Minister was accompanied by Jugal Kishore Sharma Member of Parliament and Chetan Prakash Jain, CMD, Central Electronics Limited (CEL) in Union Ministry of Science & Technology which had taken the responsibility of installing a solar plant at a short notice on the eve of the Prime Minister’s visit.
A team of around a dozen senior scientists and senior officers from the Union Ministry of Science & Technology were also present at the site during the minister’s visit.
Dr Jitendra Singh, who is also the Minister of State (independent charge) Science & Technology; Minister of State (independent charge) Earth Sciences besides MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, added that the 500 kilowatt solar plant installed on a total area of 6,408 square metres would provide clean electricity and light to over 340 houses in the Panchayat.
He said a twenty-five member team had been working round the clock to complete the Rs 2.75 Cr project. He said the electricity generated would be distributed to the village, having a daily requirement of about 2,000 units through the local grid power station.
It may be recalled that a series of meetings were held in New Delhi between Union Ministers Dr Jitendra Singh and Giriraj Singh to fine-tune exhibition themes for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Jammu event in the last fortnight.
Dr Jitendra Singh said that senior officers from different participating Ministries and Departments of Government of India that took part in the meeting included Rural Development, Panchayati Raj and six science Departments of Science & Technology, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Biotechnology, Space, Atomic Energy and Earth Sciences.