India would discuss Iran Gas Pipeline on 29th April
India would seriously be discussing about the possibility of an early execution of Iran Turkmenistan India gas pipeline project as it is falling short of all forms of energies to meet its future energy requirement with the visiting President of Iran who is arriving at New Delhi on 29th of April, says Dr. Kirit S Parikh, Member, Planning Commission.
Inaugurating the ASSOCHAM organized 3rd South Asia Renewable Energy Conference here today, Dr. Parikh also advocated the need for cooperative development with countries like Burma, Nepal and Bhutan to import hydel energy so that India meets its power requirements and get out of its power crisis.
“The benefits of cooperative development and its cost should be equitably shared by the countries concerned as this project is much more feasible”, said Dr. Parikh adding that the Planning Commission would recommend it to the government.
Referring to Indo-US Nuclear Civil Agreement, the Planning Commission Member felt that it should be signed without any delay to help India import Uranium and set up a number of nuclear power projects. The nuclear power is much more cheaper and therefore with the signing of the deal, uranium imports would become much cheaper and facilitate India set up many nuclear power plants with joint venture agreements.
Elaborating on Iran Turkmenistan India gas pipeline project, Dr. Parikh emphasized that since India has fallen short of all power forms, the much talked about gas pipeline project would be discussed at the highest political level when the Iranian President arrives at New Delhi towards end of this month.
The Planning Commission Member also emphasized the need for harnessing the solar power to generate electricity particularly to remove darkness in the rural India. Initially, their should be susbsidies extension to promote such power projects and thereafter subsidy should be done away with as solar power is much more environmental friendly and can be harnessed with little more costs and that is why, the Planning Commission would lay its focus on power generation.
According to Dr. Parikh, with harnessing of solar energy, India could generate nearly 50,000 MW of solar power by 2050, the capacity of which could be further enhanced to over 75,000 MW.
According to him, bio-fuels such as Jatropha are being also grown in nearly 55 million hectares of wasted land of India to generate 100 million tones of bio-fuels. This would also help India to generate fuels that can be mixed with petrol and diesel to help its transport sector.
The Planning Commission would also push other renewable sources of energy for power generation and particularly so in the field of wind power generation. According to him, the estimates are that India could generate 100,000 MW of power through harnessing wind energy by 2050.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Robert K Dixon, Sr. Coordinator for Energy Security & Climate Change, White House, USA sought cooperation for harnessing non-renewable sources of energy between India and USA. The developed nations would bring down their emission levels within next few years with these kind of cooperation, he added.
Mr. M Marc Fonbaustier, Minister Counselor, French Embassy emphasized the need for nuclear cooperation agreement between France and India so that the former is able to help transfer nuclear technology to latter for nuclear power generation.
Among others who spoke on the occasion and sought policy makers cooperation for harnessing sources of non-conventional energy include Mr. Rakesh Bakshi, Chairman, ASSOCHAM Committee on New & Renewable Energy, Mr. Harish Mehta, Director, Suzlon Group, and Mr. D S Rawat, Secretary General ASSOCHAM
