BMTC harvests sun to save on power bills

By Y. Maheswara Reddy | NT

Bengaluru: If all goes well, the Bangalore Metropolitan Transpor t Corporation (BMTC), which has been reeling under losses, may not have to pay power bills. The BMTC management has embarked on utilising roof tops and vacant spaces at the bus depots in the city.

“We have taken measures to install solar panels at 23 bus depots and three workshops to generate power. Installation of solar panels has been completed at most of the bus depots except three depots,” said BMTC vice chairman M.R. Venkatesh.

It needs Rs 30 lakh for installing a rooftop solar unit at each of the bus depots, but the BMTC need not shell out such huge sums. “We are utilising the 100 percent subsidy from the Central Government for installing solar units at our bus depots. No financial burden on us,” said the BMTC vice chairman.

BMTC has 45 bus depots at various locations across the city. “We would like to have rooftop solar units at all our bus depots. As of now, rooftop solar units have been installed at 25 bus depots. We will install the rooftop solar units at the remaining 20 bus depots in the near future,” said the BMTC vice chairman.

As of now the rooftop solar units have the capacity to generate 1,642 KWP.

The solar panels installed at Mandur (depot no. 47), MS Palya ( d e p o t no . 45 ) , an d Chikkanagamangala (depot no. 38) have the capacity of producing 100 KWP while two of its workshops have the capacity of producing 170 KWP. The BMTC depots that have rooftop solar panels are RR Nagar, Sumanahalli, Jigani, Katrhiguppe, Kothanuru Dinne, Deepanjalinagar, Hebbal, HSR Layout, Mandur, Kalyana Nagar, Kannalli, Bairathi, MS Palya, Peenya, Anjanapura, Chikkanagamangala , Poornaprajna Layout, KR Pura, Helahanka, Yesvantpur, and Shanthinagar.

“We have been saving Rs 12 to Rs 13 lakh per month by generating solar power. Earlier, we used to pay Rs 12 to Rs 13 lakh to the Bengaluru Electricity Supply Company (Bescom) every month. Now, we will supply the excess solar power to Bescom in future,” said the BMTC vice chairman.