Telangana government to install solar power plants on temple lands

In the first phase, solar plants would be set up in 231.05 acres in 5 districts — Siddipet, Medak, Nirmal, Nizamabad and Nalgonda

Hyderabad: To protect vast swathes of temple lands, the State government has come out with an initiative to set up solar power plants on these lands to generate green power.

Sources say the State government was planning to set up solar plants in 252.39 acres of temple lands. In the first phase, solar plants would be set up in 231.05 acres in 5 districts — Siddipet, Medak, Nirmal, Nizamabad and Nalgonda. In the second phase solar plants will be constructed in 21.34 acres of temple lands spread over Hanamkonda and Mahabubabad districts.

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Solar plants would be set up in 9.06 acres of land of Sri Venugopalaswamy temple in Cheryala mandal of Siddipet district, 100 acres of Sri Lakshminarayana Swamy Temple in Medak district, 96.36 acres of Bimsa Shri Gosala in Nirmal district, and 9.10 acres of Jankampet village in Edapally Mandal of Nizamabad district.

Similarly, solar plants would be set up in 15.33 acres of Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy Devasthanam situated at Bijjalapuram village in Mothkur mandal of Nalgonda district.

Self-help group women would be given the responsibility to implement the project and also to maintain it. The State government would also provide funds to SHGs to set up solar plants. The initiative would help the SHG women earn revenues through maintenance of the solar plants, officials said.

Officials claimed that solar plants in temple lands would not only bring down power bills of the temples, but also help in saving them from encroachment. The move would also help temples in generating revenues through sale of excess power to Discoms through power grids, they added.

Already, the government has initiated steps to ensure that temple lands are not registered in the name of individuals and even geo-tagging exercises has also been taken up by the Endowments Department. So far about 34,000 acres of temple lands have been geo-tagged. District Collectors have been directed to initiate measures to reclaim the encroached and alienated endowment lands.