Gujarat's Modhera declared India's first solar-powered village

Surat: Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared Modhera in poll-bound Gujarats Mohsana district as Indias first 24x7 solar-powered village on Sunday.

PM Modi is on a Gujarat visit for three days from October 9-11. On his first day, the prime minister visited Modhera and declared it as Indias first village to become a net renewable energy generator.

As the people in Modhera would be saving 60% to 100% on electricity bills after using solar energy, PM Modi said, Now we will not pay for electricity, but start selling it & earn from it. The government used to supply electricity to citizens till a while back but now citizens will be able to produce their own electricity.

PM Modi also added that Modhera will now be known as Suryagram.

The central and Gujarat government initiated the solarisation of Modhera Sun Temple and town to provide round-the-clock solar energy through a solar power project integrated with Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) at Sujjanpura in Mehsana, nearly 6 km away from the Sun Temple.

The Gujarat government had allotted 12 hectares of land for the development of this project.

An amount of Rs 80.66 crore was spent on a 50:50 basis by both the state and central government in two phases. The first phase constituted Rs 69 crore, and the second phase, Rs 11.66 crore.

The prime minister will be visiting Bharuch, Ahmedabad and Jamnagar on October 10, while he will lay the foundation of new projects in Ahmedabad Civil Hospital on October 11.