13 Feb :The criteria has been fixed to declare a city as a solar city in the country. The criteria for developing an identified city as solar city is to reduce a minimum of 10 % of its projected demand of conventional energy at the end of five years in their Master Plans through energy efficiency measures and generation from renewable energy installations. These cities will have a population between 0.5 to 5 million with relaxation given to special category states including North-East States.
Based on the scheme guidelines and the cities identified by the state Governments, so far ‘in principle’ approval has been given to 15 cities namely Agra, Rajkot, Moradabad, Gandhinagar, Nagpur, Kalyan-Dombiwali, Indore, Imphal, Kohima, Dehradun, Chandigarh, Gurgaon, Coimbtore, Visakhapattanam and Thane for preparing their Master Plans.
Minister of State for the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy Shri Vilas Muttemwar replied in a written question by Shri L. Rajagopal in Lok Sabha today.