Tamil Nadu’s renewable energy projects could well get a helping hand from across the Indian Ocean, according to Reunion Island’s Council President Didier Robert, after he met Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa.
Didier said, “We were keen to develop good relations and better trade ties and found that she was happy with our renewable energy projects. CM said that a member from her administration would be working with us to obtain knowledge and expertise with renewable energy projects.”
Reunion Island is a French Colony that is situated near Madagascar and the African coast. The island has a huge Tamil diaspora, with the Indian populace contributing to nearly 30 per cent of their 800,000 population.
Didier’s trade pitch to the TN state administration comes in the wake of the official flagging off the first direct flight from Reunion to Chennai, courtesy their carrier Air Austral.
Renunion’s expertise with renewable energy may be vital to the state because Reunion embarked with the ambition of making their state a zero nett energy state, a few years ago. “We have made great strides in wind and water energy, solar energy, solid waste management and biomass among many other things. We would be happy to share this knowledge with Tamil Nadu,” he said.
Air Austral operates flights twice a week on the Reunion-Chennai-Bangkok run and costs approximately Rs 35,000 for a round trip. One of the major trade opportunities that Reunion proposed was for members of the Tamil film industry to consider their beautiful forests, beaches and island for shooting locales as well as for a holiday destination.
