The New Town Kolkata Development Authority (NKDA) on Saturday took a stride forward to turn Rajarhat-New Town into a solar city. It has made it mandatory for all commercial and residential high-rises to install solar rooftop systems to meet at least 2 per cent of the buildings’ electrical load requirement.
Debashis Sen, chairman-cum-managing director of Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation (Hidco), said that all upcoming commercial and housing establishments like schools, colleges, hospitals, housing societies and government establishments will have to meet the requirement.
“A proposal will soon be sent to the government to introduce necessary amendments in the building rules,” he said, adding that the decision was taken at Saturday’s board meeting.
According to the plan, all multi-storied buildings in Rajarhat-New Town have to meet around 1.5 to 2 per cent of their electrical load requirement through solar power. The buildings also need to be energy-intelligent which will minimise the use of conventional electricity. Regulators, on the other hand, will fix the feed in tariff rate for using solar power.
Last year, the Centre had earmarked the township as ‘Solar City’. It was then that Hidco received approval from the ministry of non-conventional and renewable energy to go ahead with the plan to use solar power in the township.
The government has already formed the New Town solar city committee to prepare concept plans. “To be a solar city, at least 10 per cent of the power the township uses will have to come from solar energy and through conservation of energy. The Centre has already sanctioned Rs 50 lakh of the total Rs 2.5 crore it has approved,” said solar energy expert SP Gon Chaudhuri, chairman of the committee and former advisor to the state power department.
Gon Chaudhuri said that elements such as solar water heaters, solar streetlights, solar staircases and green building are all part of the idea.
Apart from the standard areas like street lighting, entertainment and community lighting where solar power is used, two more aspects - energy efficiency and green buildings have been included to broaden the solar city concept.
Hidco has been working to develop the use of solar power in New Town. Already, a long stretch of the major arterial road has been lit up with LED streetlights. More such lights will be installed on various roads in the township. The authorities have also been planning to introduce battery-run three wheelers to run on short routes.
