HYDERABAD: IT and Industries Minister D Sridhar Babu on Sunday said that Telangana is pursuing a focused strategy to emerge as a national model in clean energy.
The minister was speaking at the groundbreaking ceremony of a Rs 700 crore compressed bio-gas (CBG) project at Narmetta in Siddipet district. The state government has been promoting a circular economy that integrates industrial growth with environmental sustainability while strengthening rural livelihoods, he said.
The project, being developed by Juno Joule Biofuels Pvt Ltd, is expected to generate direct employment for around 1,400 people, with women likely to constitute nearly 30 per cent of the workforce.
Referring to India’s energy profile, the minister noted that the country imports nearly 90% of its crude oil requirements and about 60% of its LPG consumption. Reducing dependence on external energy sources, he said, was critical, and clean energy solutions would play a key role in achieving this goal.
Sridhar Babu stressed the need to transform rural areas into energy production hubs, adding that the state has been consciously working to decentralise industrial growth beyond Hyderabad and strengthen the rural economy.
Describing the initiative as a “paradigm shift”, he said farmers in the region could transition from being “food providers” to “energy providers”.
The project will utilise agricultural residues such as paddy straw, along with cattle dung and poultry waste, to produce biogas, thereby converting waste into value.
The CBG initiative will be implemented in a cluster model in three phases, comprising 10 plants with a capacity of 100 tonnes per day each. Inviting investments in Telangana’s clean energy sector, the minister said the government would extend necessary support to facilitate such projects.
MPs Bhuvaneshwar Khaita and Premachandran, MLA T Harish Rao, former Union minister Santosh Bagrodia, former MPs V Hanumantha Rao and Rayapati Sambasiva Rao, and Juno Joule Biofuels CEO Rayapati Nagasharat were present.