Centre’s new plan to turn Varanasi green

NEW DELHI: The Centre is set to implement a new plan to reduce the carbon footprint of Varanasi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's constituency. On the anvil are solar power generation plants and green energy initiatives to reduce the holy city’s dependence on fossil fuel.

The move is an initiative of Piyush Goyal, according to people familiar with the matter, who said the Union minister for new and renewable energy had recently visited Germany and was impressed with the green energy initiatives undertaken by the country. The ministry is now examining the possibility of turning Varanasi completely green, they said.

“This plan has been initiated at the ministry level,” Varanasi’s divisional commissioner Nitin Ramesh Gokarn told ET. “We plan to implement it as part of our smart city initiative. Earlier, we had planned to make all government buildings green but now all stakeholders would be taken on board to make the city completely green energy-oriented.” The first step will be to gauge power loss in transmission and the total energy requirement of Varanasi. This will be followed by an assessment of how much energy can be generated through solar power, which is being looked at as the most viable option for the holy city. The Centre has been keeping a close watch on implementation of urban development programmes. Sanitation and solid waste management will be closely linked to efforts to turn Varanasi green.

On Tuesday, Union secretary (urban development) DS Mishra reviewed the progress of works in Varanasi that have seen significant progress since the BJP government came to power in the state in March.