The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy is implementing a programme on ‘Development of Solar Cities’ and in this regards in-principle approved to develop 48 cities on these lines, in parliament on Friday.

The base criteria for selecting the cities is that the population must range between 50,000 and 50 lakh said the Minister for New and Renewable Energy Farooq Abdullah in a written reply to Lok Sabha on Friday. 'So far, Rs.17.23 Cr has been sanctioned for 37 cities, of which Rs. 2.75 Cr has been released for utilization by the concerned state nodal agencies/municipal corporations,' he said.

So far, the master plans for seven cities -- Agra and Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh, Thane and Kalyan-Dombivli in Maharashtra, Indore in Madhya Pradesh, Kohima in Nagaland and Aizawl in Mizoram -- have been finalized and the development of projects is in progress.

This initiative aims to reduce a minimum of 10% of the projected demand of conventional energy of the city through renewable energy installations and energy efficiency measures.