New Delhi, November 25 (IANS): The ministry of new and renewable energy has given in-principle approval to develop 48 cities as solar cities, parliament was informed Friday. The criteria for selecting the cities is that they should have a population of between 50,000 and 50 lakh, New and Renewable Energy Minister Farooq Abdullah said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha. “So far, Rs.17.23 crore has been sanctioned for 37 cities, of which Rs. 2.75 crore has been released for utilisation 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 finalised and the development of projects is in progress.
