The Nainital district administration has set up a solar energy-driven pump in a village of Okhalkhanda block of the district to facilitate irrigation in the higher parts of the mountain. The project was completed in association with the irrigation department and Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA).
The chief development officer (CDO) Sandeep Tiwari informed that it is a pilot project under the solar pumping scheme which cost Rs 9.85 lakh to set up a solar pump of five horsepower. He said that the pump easily irrigates a four-hectare land by withdrawing the water at the rate of 60 litres per minute which is currently benefitting 18 families of the farmers. The CDO informed that the administration is also planning to set up more such pumps across the district as per the requirement to make the irrigation process easy for the farmers.
