NCP-led PMC panel rejects proposal to hire agency backed by Centre for solar power

“The committee had been postponing a decision on the civic administration’s proposal as it wanted to discuss it in detail. It felt that the project was good but its implementation by the civic administration through tender process would be more benefitting than the existing proposal of appointing an agency recommended by the Union government,” said Ashwini Kadam, chairperson of the standing committee which is dominated by the NCP.

“If the project is implemented by the PMC staff, it would be financially more benefitting to the civic body,” she said, adding that only BJP members were in favour of the civic administration’s proposal while all other political parties like NCP, Congress, Shiv Sena and MNS jointly urged the PMC administration to implement it.

Congress corporator Avinash Bagawe said the PMC said, “The handing over of the roof of civic buildings to a private agency for solar power for 30 years to save Rs 70 lakh on power consumption is not financially feasible. The PMC would get more financial gains if it executes a similar project on its own,” he said.

In the civic administration’s proposal, Municipal Commissioner Kunal Kumar had said the PMC was going to become the first municipal corporation in the country to produce 1 MW of solar power from roof-tops of civic buildings with implementation of this project.

It was planned that the power generation would go up to 5 MW by the end of 2016-17 after the pilot of 1 MW and the PMC had even identified 19 civic buildings, including schools and cultural halls, for installing solar panels on the roof.

The civic administration had said the power generated would be connected to grid and the PMC would be saving Rs 70 lakh per year through it.

The project cost was Rs 8 crore and agency appointed to implement the project would get union government subsidy for the project cost, it had said, adding that the agency would be using it for 30 years.