The Bihar government is committed to work towards development of renewable energy (RE) and ready to provide various incentives to investors in this regard.
Deputy CM Sushil K Modi while releasing the report, ‘Empowering Bihar — Policy Pathway for Energy Access’, made this statement here at a function held under the banner of Greenpeace India.
He said that the government is open to any new suggestions and ideas to develop and strengthen the existing policy. “We need to focus on rural electrification and therefore the RE model could be the way forward,” the deputy CM said.
Modi also emphasized various other issues such as pricing, technology and land issues, and he clarified that the government would not procure land for industry but could facilitate a process to ensure fairness. He asked Greenpeace to lead the process to suggest policy pathways for small-scale off grid or RE models.
Shaibal Gupta of the Asian Development Research Institute (ADRI) requested the Bihar government to increase the share of renewable energy and, accordingly, policy framework, incentives and budgetary allocation has to be made to develop it.
The report written by technocrats suggest that a decentralized approach based on renewable sources of energy would not only solve the prevailing issue of limited access to reliable energy in rural areas, but also transform the economic situation of the state.
Greenpeace has been campaigning on decentralized renewable energy in Bihar since 2010 and believes that RE can revolutionize the energy situation of the state.
Greenpeace India campaign manager Ramapati Kumar said, “Greenpeace is recommending a statewide network of decentralized renewable energy plants developed with the support from the state government agencies, in collaboration with the private entrepreneurs for an effective and accelerated economic development of the state. What is needed is a robust policy that would enable an environment to kick-start the process.”
Commenting on the report, D Lahiri of IIT Kharagpur, one of the authors of the report, said, “the suggestions in the report are aligned with the state’s need to increase its investment capacity, generate developmental benefits and minimize environmental damage.”
“Greenpeace envisions that Bihar can become a champion state by becoming self-reliant in energy and thereby effectively provide quality energy services to its rural populace in a short period of time,” said Greenpeace India campaigner Arpana Udupa.
“Greenpeace is committed to help Bihar government to strengthen the renewable energy policy and have suggested various options for bringing about a comprehensive policy and facilitate a process in the state,” she said.
