Telangana aims to be national clean energy model: Minister Sridhar Babu

Telangana has laid the foundation for a Rs 700-crore compressed bio-gas project in Siddipet, aiming to position itself as a national model in clean energy. IT and Industries Minister D. Sridhar Babu highlighted the State’s strategy of integrating industrial growth with environmental sustainability while decentralising development beyond Hyderabad.

Siddipet: Minister for IT and Industries D. Sridhar Babu said that Telangana was pursuing a focused strategy to emerge as a national model in clean energy.

Addressing the foundation laying ceremony of a Rs 700-crore compressed bio-gas (CBG) project at Narmetta in Nanganur mandal on Sunday, he said the State government was promoting a circular economy that integrates industrial growth with environmental sustainability while strengthening rural livelihoods.

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The project, being developed by Juno Joule Bio-fuels Private Limited, is expected to generate direct employment for around 1,400 people, with women likely to constitute nearly 30 per cent of the workforce. Referring to India’s energy profile, Sridhar Babu noted that the country imports nearly 90 per cent of its crude oil requirements and about 60 per cent of its LPG consumption.

Reducing dependence on external energy sources, he said clean energy solutions would play a key role in achieving the goal.The IT Minister underscored the need to transform rural areas into energy production hubs, adding that the State was consciously working to decentralise industrial growth beyond Hyderabad and strengthen the rural economy. Describing the initiative as a paradigm shift, he said farmers in the region could transform from being food suppliers to energy producers.

The project will utilise agricultural residues such as paddy straw, along with cattle dung and poultry waste, to produce biofuel gas, thereby converting waste into wealth. The CBG initiative will be implemented in a cluster model in three phases, comprising 10 plants with a capacity of 100 tonnes per day each. Inviting investments in Telangana’s clean energy sector, the Minister said the government would extend necessary support to facilitate such projects.

Former Minister T Harish Rao, MPs Bhubaneswar Kalita and Premachandran former Union Minister Santosh Bagrodia, former MPs V Hanumantha Rao and Rayapati Sambasiva Rao, and Juno Joule Biofuels CEO Rayapati Nagasharath were present.