The Mizoram Chief Minister Shri Lal Thanhawla met with Union Minister of State ( independent charge ) for power, coal, new and renewable energy and Mines Shri Piyush Goyal at the latter’s office in New Delhi yesterday.
The Chief Minister brought up current status of Mizoram regarding power generation both in hydro and solar energy. The Chief Minister also mentioned the needs for improvement in power generation in this meeting. The power Minister assured the Chief Minister that he would send a high level delegation team to inspect the works, prospect and infrastructural needs.
The Chief Minister requested the Power Minister to make the 24 MW Tuirini Hydel Project solely into a State Project and further pointed out that the current subsidy received under Small Hydel Project is quite minimal to which Shri Piyush Goyal agreed to bring up the matter with the Ministry.
In this meeting the Chief Minister emphatically stated that the goverment of Mizoram is taking keen interest on solar power generation, being a renewable clean energy to which Mizoram has huge potential for solar energy as it gets good sunlight. The Chief Minister told the Union Power Minister that the state goverment has drafted Solar Power Policy, the State’s Solar PV Plant Project at Thenzawl which would be able to produce 10 MW has already been submitted to the Ministry of New and Renewable Resources and in this regard he urged the Power Minister to make necessary arrangement with JAICA for the early commencement of the Project. Shri Lal Thanhawla also voiced the state’s desire to install more solar power plants at various places within the state in accordance with the solar power policy of the state for which he asked the Minister’s assistance. The Chief Minister also suggested Cross Border Electrification between Mizoram and Myanmar to boost the Indo-Myanmar trade as of now various trading points in border has not been electrified. The Union Power Minister expressed his willingness to look into the matter.
