Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate Asia’s largest 750 MW Rewa ultra mega solar plant in Madhya Pradesh via video conference on July 10, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said in Delhi on Sunday.

A state government release also quoted that Chouhan has met Union Minister of state for energy R K Singh at his residence in the national capital and urged him to attend the inauguration program.

Advertisement

The development comes after PM Modi had launched the auction process for 41 coal blocks for commercial mining on June 18, a move that opens India’s coal sector for private players, and termed it a major step in the direction of India achieving self-reliance. However, climate activists and scientists have been urging world leaders to invest in cleaner fuels.

Reacting to this decision, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had said there is no reason for any country to include coal in their COVID-19 recovery plans and investments should instead be made in non-polluting energy sources.

Guterres had last month presented the United Nations Response on COVID-19 that documents not only the action taken by the world body over the last three months of the pandemic but also offers a roadmap toward recovering better.

“We cannot go back to the way it was and simply recreate the systems that have aggravated the crisis. We need to build back better with more sustainable, inclusive, gender-equal societies and economies,” Guterres said in remarks during a virtual press conference.

Launching the auction of mines for commercial mining, that is expected to garner Rs 33,000 crore of capital investment in the country over next five to seven years, the prime minister had said India will win the coronavirus war and turn the crisis into an opportunity, and that the pandemic will make India self-reliant.

A recent report released by International Energy Agency (IEA) has advised wind and solar power should be a top focus, for countries alongside energy efficiency improvements to buildings and industries, and the modernisation of electricity grids.

Presently, despite being the world’s fourth-largest producer, India is the second-largest importer of the dry-fuel, Modi had said. India is also the third-largest producer of greenhouse gases in the world after the United States and China.