Sikkim village revives lake that lay dry for 25 years

Using the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarentee Scheme, the villagers of Namthang block in Sikkim have revived the Nagi lake that went dry 25 years ago. People, under the banner of Nagi Karek Gram Panchayat Unit, redirected spring water from a distance of 10 kms to revive the lake. The moisture retention and groundwater recharge from the lake is now benefitting about 1700 people in nine villages of the drought-prone block. Agricultural output is said to have gone up while new areas have also been brought under cultivation.

Kudankulam starts production

13 years after its construction, unit 1 of the Kudankulam nuclear plant in south Tamil Nadu's Tirunelveli supplied 160 mega watts to the southern grid this week. The unit, with a capacity of 1000 MW, has got permission to supply only 500 MW to the grid from the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board till all tests are performed on it. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Russia where he had talks with the government about supplying two more 1000 MW Russian reactors for the Kudankulam plant coincided with this. Agreement for two reactors has already been signed with the Russian government. When commissioned, the nuclear power plant would be the biggest in India in terms of capacity.

Bihar village to have NGO-funded solar micro-grid project

Greenpeace has laid the foundation of a micro-grid project in Dharnai Village in Jahanabad district of Bihar. The micro grid will involve about 100 kilowatts of solar panels that will supply round the clock electricity to 350 households in Dharnai. The NGO is setting up the project, which will be operational by next year, to prove that the real solution for rural electrification lies in decentralized renewable energy. Dharnai, a village dependent on diesel-based gensets for its power needs, has been selected by the NGO keeping in mind its socio-economic profile, demography and accesibility.

Power plant in Nagpur to have the biggest unit in the country to run on treated sewage

Mahagenco, a thermal power company, will run its 660 MW Unit 8 on treated wastewater. The unit, trial run for which will begin in january next year, will have two more units running on treated wastewater in the next two years. Mahagenco is constructing a sewage treatment plant with a capacity of 130 million litres per day to treat the wastewater of Nag river. The use of treated sewage will reduce the dependence of Mahagenco on water from the Totladoh dam even as it will stop flow of the Nag river sewage into Gosikhurd dam.

200 foundries in Kolhapur to go green

Foundries in Kolhapur are set to go green soon as part of a World Bank project to change over to cleaner technologies, good practices for efficient use of energy and reduction of gases affecting environment. As part of the project, the auditing agency Price Waterhouse Coopers undertook the energy audit of 200 foundries in the region. Experts from the Bureau of Energy Efficiency suggested changes like the use of induction furnace, which runs on electricity instead of the traditional furnace which uses coal for fuel. The foundries will receive grants in the form of subsidy for the next few years from the World Bank if they follow the norms.

This is a weekly roundup of important news from October  21-27. Also read last week's policy matters updates.