81% Of PM-KUSUM (Comp B) Capacities Come From 5 States

A latest data released by the Union government before the Parliament revealed that a lion’s share of the PM-KUSUM scheme (Component-B) comes from five states alone. The majority of these states are based in the western part of the country. Component B of the Union government schemes mandates the installation of decentralised off-grid solar pumps. The scheme was launched to decarbonise the agricultural sector. This was possible by the planned shunning of diesel and grid electricity, used to irrigate the agricultural lands of farmers.

Union Minister of State (MoS) of the Ministry of Power and the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy Shripad Yesso Naik shared the latest data on the status of solar pump installations under PM-KUSUM. According to the data, 30 states achieved 42% of their target. These states installed 540,499 pumps. This was against their sanctioned 1,302,327 pump target. Among these, five states from Western India,  Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab, and Gujarat took the lion’s share, indicating their interest and pro-solar schemes and preparedness. The data said that the cumulative achievement of all Indian states stood at 42%.

According to the data, the top-performing state for PM-KUSUM (Component-B) is Maharashtra. It achieved 505,000 sanctioned projects out of a total of 197,863; Rajasthan installed 85,635 projects out of 212,914; Haryana, installed 19,765 projects out of 136,572. Punjab, installed 12,952 projects out of 53,000. Gujarat installed 7,670 projects out of a target of 12,382. Cumulatively, the total installed capacity of these five Western Indian states is about 81.53% under the PM-KUSUM Scheme.

PM-KUSUM 

In a written reply to the parliament, the minister mentioned, “More than 9.7 lakh states have issued Letters of Award (LoA) out of which 5,40,499 solar pumps have been installed as of 31.10.2024. The budgetary allocation for solar pump installations under Component B of the scheme is Rs 11,438 cr out of which around 33% has been utilized as of 31.10.2024. The sunset date of the scheme is 31st March 2026.”  Thus taking the cumulative installed capacity to 5,40,499 pumps out of the sanctioned 13,02,327 pumps.

Component B focuses on the installation of 1.4 lakh stand-alone solar pumps in off-grid areas. The beneficiaries under Component B could be individual farmers, Water User Associations, Primary Agricultural Credit Societies, and Communities/Cluster-Based Irrigation Systems. According to the shared data, some states have achieved their target, while others have not made any progress. Kerala emerged as the sole state to reach its target by installing eight projects to meet its set target. Some states that saw no real progress include Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Ladakh, Telangana, and Andaman and Nicobar. Meanwhile, West Bengal and Puducherry haven’t set any target for this component.