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This story is from August 15, 2020

Govt booster for solar park at heart of Modi’s carbon-neutral vision for Ladakh

Govt booster for solar park at heart of Modi’s carbon-neutral vision for Ladakh
NEW DELHI: Prime minister Modi on Saturday set Ladakh on course to a carbon neutral future and announced a 7,500 mw solar park there, even as funding incentives are being lined up to energise the mega project at the heart of Narendra Modi’s vision for India's youngest union territory.
“Ladakh has several specialties. Not only do we have to preserve them, we have to nurture them as well.
As Sikkim has made its mark as an organic state in the northeast, Ladakh - Leh and Kargil - can also create their own niche as a carbon neutral unit,” Modi said in his I-Day speech, listing the proposed solar park among the Centre’s initiatives.
Parallelly, the renewable energy ministry is moving to partly fund the linked transmission line, the high cost of which was making power unaffordable. “The transmission project is being included in the Centre’s Green Energy Corridor Phase-II for viability gap funding (VGF),” renewable energy minister Raj Kumar Singh told TOI. This will make the line eligible for up to 40% VGF.
TOI was the first to report on January 13, 2019, the project being planned by state-run renewable energy agency SECI at an estimated investment of Rs 45,000 crore. The project is to be completed by 2023 and estimated to save 12,750 tonne of carbon emission annually and create livelihood for locals who remain cut off for 6-8 months.
The project envisages a 5,000-mw unit at Morey plains, 215 km east of Leh along the road to Manali. Another 2,500-mw unit is to be built at Suru in Zanskar, 245 km east of Kargil. The Leh project will feed power into the national grid at Kaithal in Haryana through a 900-km transmission line across high mountain passes. The Zanskar project will feed into the grid at New Wanpoah in Kashmir.
Approximately 25,000 acres in Leh and 12,500 acres of non-grazing land in Zanskar has been earmarked for the project. The Leh and Kargil hill councils will earn Rs 1,200 per hectare, with 3% annual escalation.
As reported by TOI earlier, 50 prospective investors, including equipment manufacturers, had showed up at the first investor meet on February 19, 2019. But the high cost of the transmission line emerged as a key issue.
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