The temple town of Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh is set to go green in a big way, with a 40 MW solar power project likely to become fully operational by March 2024 and a string of other solar initiatives spearheaded by the Uttar Pradesh New and Renewable Energy Department (UPNEDA).

The project is being developed by NTPC Green Energy, a wholly-owned subsidiary of NTPC, on 165 acres of land. “We are ready to commission a 15 MW capacity now,” Ratan Singh, Project Head and Additonal General Manager, NTPC Green Energy, told Mercom. The part commissioning will be done in the next few days.

The project is part of various initiatives planned under the Solar City Program. Jakson Green has won the engineering, procurement, and construction contract for the 40 MW project.

A total of 104,580 solar panels are being installed in the project. Singh said the modules were supplied by Jakson Group, and the inverters were supplied by FIMER India.

Touted as Uttar Pradesh’s first Solar City, Ayodhya will also see the installation of 470 solar streetlights over a 10.2 km stretch. Some 200 such lights have already been installed, a UPNEDA official told Mercom India.

Ayodhya is among 24 towns and cities identified by the Union government to be developed as solar cities.

The Uttar Pradesh government said in its solar policy 2022 that the state aims to achieve an installed solar capacity of 22 GW by 2026-27.

The solar initiatives include a 250 kW rooftop solar project, which has already been installed at the Ayodhya airport, a 50 kW solar project set up at a cow shelter, and solar-powered mobile phone charging points and drinking water kiosks.

The rooftop solar system at the airport was installed by Jakson Group.

A Jakson Group spokesperson said the company had outfitted the Maharishi Valmiki International Airport at Ayodhya with a state-of-the-art 250 kW rooftop solar system which will be fully operational from February 1, 2024.

As part of the Solar City program, a total rooftop solar capacity of 1.07 MW has already been installed on residential, commercial, and industrial buildings in Ayodhya.

Solar trees of 1 kW and 2.5 kW capacity are being installed at 52 locations, including public parks in Ayodhya.

An official of UPNEDA said the solar trees have already come up at 42 sites so far, and the rest will be in place well before January 22, when a temple to Hindu God Rama is being consecrated. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend the event.