In Bhopal, political rallies have stalled BHEL’s plan to set up a 10 MW solar plant

New Delhi: State-owned Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd's (BHEL) plan to set up its ambitious 10 MW solar power plant in Bhopal's Jambooree Maidan seems to have run into a quagmire because the site hosts a lot of political rallies and functions. This, in turn, has forced the public sector behemoth to cut down the capacity of the plant to 5 MW. BHEL has now asked its head office to allow them to install solar panels at some other place as the possibility of putting Jambooree Ground to use seems bleak.

BHEL had come up with a plan to install solar panels at the ground some three years ago to harness 10 MW power.

BHEL had come up with a plan to install solar panels at the ground some three years ago to harness 10 MW power. BHEL general manager (PR) Raghvendra Shukla said that it would have enabled them to save 10 percent on their electricity bills. But now that the state administration has said that the ground will not be available for power plant, the site for setting up solar panels will have to be shifted somewhere else.

"After identifying two or three places in the BHEL township, a request has been sent to the head office of BHEL in Delhi seeking its permission to allow the public sector undertaking to install solar panels to harness just 5 MW power," Shukla said.