SAMBALPUR: Hefty electricity bills will soon be a thing of the past for the redeveloped Samaleswari temple with the commissioning of its 120 KW solar power plant which became operational on Sunday.
After the redevelopment of Samaleswari temple under the SAMALEI project, the shrine’s trust board was grappling with financial burden caused by a significant increase in electricity bills.
Sources said after the inauguration of the first phase SAMALEI project on January 27 this year, the temple was received electricity bills ranging from Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 3 lakh since March.
The average monthly electricity consumption of the temple was 27,000- 28,000 units during the period.
Initially, the temple was given a load capacity of 240 KW by TPWODL to reduce the energy bills. Subsequently, the temple authorities requested the power supply company to reduce
the capacity to 180 KW and make the 120 KW solar plant operational.
President of the temple trust board Sanjay Babu said, “We were trying to shift to solar power a few after the temple was re-inaugurated. We are happy that it has finally been materialised. The solar power plant has been set up between the facility for pilgrims and administrative block area with the panels installed on the roof. If things go as per plan, the temple’s power bills will be cut down by around 40 per cent.”
After the Covid-19 outbreak, sources said, the temple had stopped receiving electricity bills. When the redevelopment project started, it came to the fore that the pending power bills had gone up to more than `20 lakh. Later, with the intervention of the district administration, the temple trust board paid more than one-fourth of the pending amount, which was around `6 lakh ahead of the inauguration of the first phase SAMALEI project. However, the power bills went on mounting after the inauguration.
While work on the next phases of SAMALEI project is still underway and the expenses of the temple is set to go up in the coming days, the shift to green energy will address the high energy bills of the shrine in the long run.