VELLORE: Tuticorin port may soon have cheaper power sourcing options to bring down the cost of producing desalinated water to meet the city’s needs. Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Saturday said a tender process was floated recently in Kandla in Gujarat to produce 3000 MW of power from wind and solar energy. He has requested the power minister for permission to use it in ports, including Tuticorin.
He said cost per unit of power used in desalination plants in the state is `6. “I can give the power per unit at half the price and it may help bring down the cost of producing desalinated water,” the minister said. On Saturday, he attended the 34th annual convocation of Vellore Institute of Technology here. He digitally unveiled the foundation stone for a new building complex in the university to be constructed at a cost of Rs 300 crores.
Recalling how he revolutionised the national highways in Maharashtra using lesser than the proposed budget, he advised students to think out of the box for solutions to problems.
“Entrepreneurship is important and it is related to leadership. Engineers must provide jobs to those who lack it,” he said. VIT Chancellor G Viswanathan said the university has been encouraging poor students to pursue education. “We’ve offered about 5000 scholarships and of those who got them, two-thirds were women,” he said.