ONGC’s old wells to light up villages

‘‘As of now, the ONGC says it can start with 10 states by utilising capped wells that are closer to the coastal areas’’ where the necessary infrastructure for building power plants would be more easily available, Aiyar said. The proposal offers that the ‘‘project may begin with sale of power at 10 per cent of the cost’’. The project will conclude in the fifth year with ‘‘all activities, including power generation taken over by the community…’’

The wells being considered by the ONGC were drilled in the past but later ‘‘capped’’ as they were not commercially viable due to lack of other wells in the vicinity. On an average, each of these wells would produce 3 MW of power.

‘‘For instance, 1 MW is possible to be worked out with a gram sabha, a block would be covered by two power plants of 5 MW each, and a 30 MW power plant can be managed by a district panchayat,’’ said Aiyar. ‘‘We would also like to give equal focus to non-conventional energy sources of power. We have had suggestions from the Indian Oil Corporation on bio-diesel,’’ he added.

The ONGC’ offer is under ONGCPura trust, a policy on corporate social responsibility to ‘‘provide urban facilities in rural areas’’, with a corpus of Rs 10 crore.