Planned around a decade ago, the solar power project at the Morbe Dam of Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) will now be developed on public-private partnership. The civic body expects to harness around 100 MW electricity from the project and saves around 20 crores on electricity bills.
In addition, the civic body will also set up a 1.5 MW hydropower project at the hill of the Morbe dam. Both the project will be executed simultaneously.
The civic body had first planned to set up a solar power plant in Morbe Dam in 2011. The proposal was delayed due to multiple reasons, including political interferences. In 2014, the proposal was cleared by the standing committee and it was supposed to be completed in 2015. Even the contract was awarded. However, the project was scrapped in 2016 by the then municipal commissioner Tukaram Mundhe.
Mundhe had cities lacunas in the project and scrapped by saying to save Rs 163 crores of public money.
Now, the civic body has planned to set up floating solar power panels at the dam and hydropower on the slope of the hill. While talking to the media, the municipal commissioner Abhijit Bangar said that the civic body would not spend a single rupee on the above project. “The project will be executed by a private party and the electricity generated will be bought by the civic body,” said Bangar. He added that the rate of per unit electricity will be decided as per the provisions and there would be not any scope of scam.
As per the plan, 100 MW of electricity will be harnessed from solar panels and 1.5 MW from hydropower. “The civic body will save around Rs 20 to 22 crores annually after one year of the generation of electricity from both projects,” said Bangar.
In the earlier proposal that was scrapped by Mundhe, MSEDCL was supposed to buy the electricity. However, the MSEDCL showed the inability to buy electricity and the project struck up. However, in the present proposal, the civic body will buy the electricity itself.
