Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has ignored India’s solar and wind power markets when he presented the general Budget 2018-19 in the Parliament.
Arun Jaitley didn’t mention about the focus of the country and new measures for boosting renewable energy.
Indian power companies are looking forward to support the railway electrification and modernisation which will received Capex allocation of Rs 1.48 lakh crore in the Budget.
India’s solar water pumps market will grow as the finance minister said the Centre will work with the state governments to facilitate farmers for installing solar water pumps to irrigate their fields.
“Many farmers are installing solar water pumps to irrigate their fields. Generation of solar electricity is harvesting of Sun by the farmers using their lands. Government will take necessary measures and encourage State Governments to put in place a mechanism that their surplus solar power is purchased by the distribution companies or licencees at reasonably remunerative rates,” Arun Jaitley said.
Smart Cities Mission aims at building 100 Smart Cities with amenities. 99 cities that have been selected will get an outlay of Rs 2.04 lakh crore. These cities have started implementing various projects like Smart Command and Control Centre, Smart Roads, Solar Rooftops, Intelligent Transport Systems, Smart Parks.
Smart city projects worth Rs 2,350 crore have been completed and works of Rs 20,852 crore are under progress.
“With 99 cities selected and an outlay of Rs 2.04 lakh crore allocated under the Smart City Mission, requirement of Smart Grids will increase as these are essential to support seamless power infrastructure for different Smart City functions,” said Hartek Singh, CMD, Hartek Group.
India government said 15 percent of all PMGSY roads are now being taken up through use of innovative green technologies like use of waste plastic, geo-textiles, fly ash, iron and copper slag and cold mix. This not only reduces cost of construction, but also promotes use of local and waste materials, reducing carbon footprint.