Three fixes to make PM Surya Ghar work for India's apartment cities — working prototype attached
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Respected Shri Pralhad Joshi ji,
I write as a 90-plus-year-old Mumbai resident who has followed PM Surya Ghar:
Muft Bijli Yojana with great hope. The Ministry's plan to launch a WhatsApp bot
that lets a household estimate its subsidy, cost and savings is an excellent idea,
and I congratulate you on it.
[ https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/renewables/govt-plans-whatsapp-bot-for-pm-surya-ghar-scheme-to-help-households-estimate-subsidies-costs-and-savings/articleshow/131491419.cms ]
But the bot, as conceived, will quietly disappoint the crores of families it should
serve most: those living in multi-storey buildings in our cities. I first set this out in
my blog of 15 February 2024, "Surya Ghar: Missing the Wood for the Trees," and
the gap has only widened since.
THE BLIND SPOT, IN REAL NUMBERS
A 3 kW system needs about 300 sq ft of clear terrace. A city building's terrace
simply cannot provide that for every flat. In February 2024 I surveyed five
Mumbai buildings myself:
- Andheri: 24 flats, 1,500 sq ft terrace, enough for about 5 flats
- Vile Parle: 20 flats, 1,500 sq ft, about 3 flats
- Powai: 54 flats, 3,000 sq ft, about 10 flats
- Kandivali: 16 flats, 2,200 sq ft, about 7 flats
- Chandivali: 49 flats, 2,000 sq ft, about 7 flats
In every case the terrace serves barely 10 to 20 per cent of flats. From my own
10th-floor window in Andheri I look down upon a hundred terraces and cannot
spot even one rooftop installation. Set against the more than 26 lakh installations
the Ministry has reported to Parliament, the message is plain: the scheme is
succeeding in independent houses and bypassing urban apartments almost
entirely.
I therefore urge three connected changes, all demonstrated in the working
prototype I attach as Annexure A:
1. LET THE BOT TELL THE TRUTH. Driven by the consumer / bill number (which
the DISCOM already holds), it should compute the required kW, the terrace that
kW demands, and weigh it against the terrace available per flat, returning an
honest FEASIBLE or NOT FEASIBLE rather than false hope.
2. FOR THE MAJORITY WHO CANNOT FIT A ROOFTOP, SUPPLY THE POWER FROM
ELSEWHERE. Let REC / CPSE / SPVs build large solar farms (about 1 GW each) on
government land near each city, feed that power to the local DISCOM free of cost,
and let the DISCOM supply multi-storey families at a small carrying charge: a
society-level rooftop plant for what the terrace allows, and the city solar farm for
the balance. Then every eligible family gets solar power, not merely the few on
the top floor.
3. STOP ASKING CITIZENS TO "APPLY" AT ALL. This is the heart of the matter.
The registration form asks for State, DISCOM, consumer number, mobile and
email, every one of which the DISCOM already has. In seconds, a DISCOM can
list every consumer whose 12-month average is below 300 units, tabulate them
building by building, and send each one a pre-filled message: "You qualify. Reply
YES for a site survey, NO to opt out." For those without email, a line on the next
monthly bill, flagged by SMS, will do. No forms, no data re-entry, and no eligible
family left out.
A bot, and a scheme, that tell a citizen the truth and then point to the route that
actually works will earn far more trust, and will turn this Yojana into a genuine
benchmark for the Global South.
The attached prototype (Annexure A) demonstrates all three ideas, using the five
real buildings above; tapping any one shows the honest verdict and the two-part
supply route in a single click.
I would be honoured if the Ministry would consider these suggestions.
With deep respect and warm regards,
Hemen Parekh
Mumbai
www.hemenparekh.in
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