Hyderabad: The Telangana government has decided to replace all the existing agricultural pump sets (numbering more than 20 lakh) with solar-powered ones in a phased manner. This was mentioned in the state's solar power policy that was announced after much delay.

“The state government would undertake this task in collaboration with the Central government’s ministry of renewable energy and ministry of power as well as multilateral agencies through subsidy support. The scheme of gross metering facility would be extended to project developers and farmers for setting up solar-powered pump sets” the policy said.

Details will be issued in a month by the discom, said TSSPDCL. It is a Herculean task to install solar meters for a number of reasons: First, the farmers are not co-operative as they believe that the solar-powered meters are not effective.

Second, the field staff, who are supposed to inspect the meters, are very few in number. Third, the release of the subsidy component and arrangement of loan take time. And finally, there is no co-ordination between Nedcap and the discoms etc.

The Telangana state government has also stated that it would promote roof-top solar projects. Implementation of this ambitious plan is also not easy as the existing applications for RTPs are being cleared slowly and the interest among the public is rather low.

The state announced the setting up of a Solar Policy Cell that will undertake single window clearance for all solar-based power projects. A transaction charge ranging from Rs 10,000/MW to Rs 2 lakh per project will be collected. All clearances will be done in 21 days, an official made it clear.