Ten thousand Tamil Nadu houses to get solar panels soon

Promoting clean and green energy, the Centre has approved fitting of roof top solar energy panels on 10,000 houses belonging to economically weaker sections in Tamil Nadu at an estimated cost of Rs 253 crore under Prime Minister’s Awas Yojana (Urban).

This proposal of the state government was approved by an Inter-Ministerial Central Sanctioning and Monitoring Committee (CSMC) chaired by Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Ministry (HUPA) Secretary Nandita Chatterjee. It is a first of its kind green initiative to promote clean energy and use of solar power under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana.

Unit cost of ‘greening’ these 10,000 EWS houses in 157 town panchayats is estimated to be Rs 2.53 lakh per house. Of this, the HUPA Ministry will provide an assistance of Rs 1.50 lakh per house while the state government will contribute Rs.0.60 lakh and the beneficiary’s contribution will be Rs 43,000, according to a release.

The committee also approved construction of 7,204 houses under Affordable Housing in Partnerhsip (AHP) component of PMAY (Urban) in 9 cities and towns at a total cost of Rs 572 crore with cost of construction ranging from Rs 7.22 lakh to Rs 8.46 lakh per house. Of this, the central assistance will be Rs 1.50 lakh per house and the rest will be borne by the state government and beneficiaries.

As per the committee s approval, another 6,272 houses of economically weaker sections will be improved with required additional construction at a total cost of Rs 188 crore under the ‘Beneficiary led Construction’ component of urban housing mission in 9 cities. For this, the central government will provide an assistance of Rs 1.50 lakh per each beneficiary while the state government and beneficiary will contribute Rs 60,000 and Rs 90,000 per house respectively.

Of the total cost of construction/improvement of 23,476 houses in Tamil Nadu approved, the central government will provide a total assistance of Rs 352.14 crore. Affordable houses approved for construction/improvement are: Chennai – 4,635, Pudukkottai – 1,920, Namakkal – 1,392, Madurai – 1,362, Ranipet — 1,086, Tiruchirapalli – 896, Vellore – 521, Erode – 448, Coimbatore – 356, Nagapattinam – 336, Thanjavur – 256, Hosur – 190 and Viruddhnagar – 78.