The project will be implemented under the aegis of Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Ltd (GUVNL) and four distribution companies (DISCOMS) - Daxin Gujarat Vij Company Ltd, Madhya Gujarat Vij Company Ltd, Paschim Gujarat Vij Company Ltd and Uttar Gujarat Vij Company Ltd, according to a state government notification issued last month.
The purchase of solar-powered water pumps will be initiated in the coming days through tenders, GUVNL's chief engineer (technical) Y D Brahmbhatt told PTI.
"Our main aim is to reduce the burden on our existing power plants and encourage the farmers to opt for solar powered pumps for their regular irrigation needs. We have given a go ahead to this project after successful testing of 25 such pumps for last one-and-half years, as we received very good feed back," he said.
As per a recent notification issued by state energy and petro-chemicals department, the solar pumps are necessary as 20 per cent of total electricity produced in the state is being used for agriculture purpose, which ultimately increases the financial burden on government in the form of subsidy.
The state government has to incur huge expenditure to set up basic infrastructure for providing new power connections for agriculture purpose, stated the notification announcing the commencement of the project.
"These solar-based water pumps will be given to those who have already applied for regular agriculture electricity connection as on March 31, 2014. At present, we are going to distribute 1,000 such pumps across the state with the help of DISCOMS," said Brahmbhatt.