Indore Municipal Corporation, ranked top in cleanliness survey for six consecutive years, has become the country’s first civic body to launch green bonds, seeking to raise Rs 244 crore for a 60-mw solar plant at its water pumping station.
The public issues of the green bonds will be open for subscription from February 10-14, Pushyamitra Bhargav, mayor of Indore, and Divyank Singh, chief executive of the Indore Smart City Development Commission, told reporters here on Monday. The issue will be listed on the National Stock Exchange, they added. They said the drinking water department of the city administration spends over Rs 300 crore in annual electricity charges.
Its Juladh pumping station, by the Narmada river falling in the Khargone district, is the biggest pumping station for the city. “As part of our effort to become greener, and save resources, we are setting up a 60-mw solar plant to power the Juladh pumping station at an investment of Rs 305 crore in Samraj and Ashukhedi villages. On commissioning, we can save at least Rs 5-6 crore from on power tariffs,” Bhargav said.
The balance amount will come from the Centre: Rs 41 crore as viability gap funding and Rs 26 crore or 13 per cent special incentives that the Centre offers to municipalities for launching bonds. The Centre caps this 13 per cent incentive for only up to Rs 200 crore of bond sales.
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