November 23, 2012
India

Revival of project sought

By G RAJENDRA, TNN | Nov 23, 2012, 04.25 PM IST | timesofindia.indiatimes.com

MADIKERI: A writ petition has been filed in the high court seeking the revival of a windmill project launched in 1986-87 at Thalacauvery.

The project was abruptly stopped after heavy investment by the nodal agencies.

Based on the petition filed by M A Ravikumar, a Bangalore-based advocate, the court has issued notices to the Central and state governments, Karnataka Renewable Energy Development Limited and Karnataka Industrial Investment and Development Corporation.

The plea seeks installation of viable, technological proven windmills by replacing the existing defunct mills at Thalacauvery. The petition states that five windmills were installed by a private company in 1986-87, but it never became functional. The state government through nodal agencies like KPCL, KSFC and KSISDL had invested more than Rs 60 lakh to get the windmills from Canada installed. The windmills were expected to generate more than 0.55 MW of power.

The petition argues that consumers using firewood for cooking and other domestic purposes will avoid cutting trees if the windmill projects was implemented. This will help in the conservation of forest especially in the potential catchment area near Thalacauvery, which is a major river in Karnataka providing irrigation and drinking water to lakhs of people.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2012/11/23/revival-of-project-sought/