MNRE sets up project development cell to offer on-tap projects to investors

The PDC will develop investible projects in coordination between the central and state governments. It main job would be to create projects for investment that come with all approvals, land available for allocation and with the complete detailed project reports for adoption/investment by investors.

The PDC will also identify issues that need to be resolved in order to attract and finalize the investments.

Government has set ambitious target for renewable energy development and is looking at big investment to achieve its goal. While solar capacity addition in the country for past few years has been encouraging, large investments have largely remained slow. It is expected with on tap projects with all clearances on offer, big investments will also come into sector.

Under the investment model cleared by the Cabinet earlier, PDC has been decided to set up in government ministries and departments that would identify and create investible projects which would then be put forward for approval before an empowered group of secretaries (EGoS) headed by cabinet secretary.

Government hopes that these investor friendly measures would help attract FDI into the country. It will also help India to develop necessary scales in different sectors that would also aid it to service big markets in US and Europe.

Renewable Energy ministry has requested the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) to nominate representatives from Invest India to participate in the working of its PDC. Invest India is the national investment promotion and facilitation agency, which focuses on sector-specific investor targeting and development of new partnerships to enable sustainable investments in India.

The ministry is also developing a portal to receive proposals from the RE sector, with provisions to check the status of action taken on such proposals.