VIJAYAWADA: A team of representatives led by former IAS and director general of International Solar Alliance Upendra Tripathi on Monday inspected the functioning of solar panels maintained by Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) at its own buildings, and enquired about how the officials ensured their maintenance.Later, the representatives held a meeting with municipal commissioner J Nivas at his chamber. During the meeting, the civic body chief informed the team that VMC had estimated the cost of installing solar panels with 5KW capacity to be Rs 5 crore.
The panels will be installed at Corporation building, Council hall, Head water works, Ramalingeswara Nagar and Sewage treatment plant at Singh Nagar to tap into the renewable energy sources and bring down the power bills. The VMC has also been planning to install rooftop solar panels at 20 locations across the city.
Nivas asked the representatives of International Solar Alliance to extend their support for installing additional rooftop solar panels with a capacity of 10 megawatts on Head Water works. The representatives expressed their satisfaction over solar panels maintenance by the civic body. VMC superintendent engineer KS Ramamurthy, NREDCAP managing director Kamalakar Babu and other officials were present during the inspection.