Bihar Govt to Set Up Solar Plants at Kajra, Pirpainty

The state cabinet on Wednesday approved the Bihar government’s proposal to establish solar power plants at Kajra in Lakhisarai and Pirpainty in Bhagalpur district on the land earlier acquired for the thermal power plants, state cabinet secretariat department additional chief secretary Sanjay Kumar said.

The cabinet also allowed to amend the energy department’s resolution of December 12, 2010 under which chunks of land had been acquired for the establishment and opening of thermal power plants.

The proposal for integrated development of 20 towns and their allied rural areas was also approved. The towns concerned are Buxar, Kishanganj, Katihar, Sasaram, Dehri, Motihari, Aurangabad, Hajipur, Jamui, Siwan, Bettiah, Bagaha, Lakhisarai, Khagaria, Araria, Forbesganj, Sitamarhi, Madhubani, Bhabhua and Sheohar.

Recent solar projects in the state include one in January this year, when SJVN Limited, the public listed mini-ratna jointly owned by the Government of India and Himachal Pradesh state, took out a tender for leasing contiguous land holdings of 1250 acres to be considered for a solar power project. Typically, a land holding of that size houses close to 250 MW of solar projects.

The move followed a similar move by the PSU in Rajasthan too. The PSU route has become the favoured route for pushing solar in backward states thanks to their ability to execute, and mitigate risks for possible bidders on the payments side. Taking care of the land acquisition issue is also a major hurdle crossed, as far as potential bidders are concerned, increasing the chances of more competitive bids. SJVN already has a tie-up with IREDA for renewable projects in place.

In August, SJVN won the auction for the 200 MW of grid-connected solar project of Rs, 1,000 crores in Bihar. The company got the project through Open Competitive Tariff Bidding Process for quoted capacity of 200 MW Rs. 3.11/unit on Build Own and Operate (BOO) basis during an e-reverse auction organised by Bihar Renewable Energy Development Agency (BREDA).