Imphal, November 24: To meet the growing demand for energy and to harness wind energy, the State Government has formulated an Energy Policy under the Manipur Renewable Energy Development Agency (MANIREDA).

To harness wind energy and supply power to villages in the hills ten centres have been set up and process of monitoring the centres have started.

Speaking to The Sangai Express, MANIREDA Chairman PL Thanga said that the Agency formulated the energy policy keeping in mind the present need as well as for the future.

The policy was framed in June this year.

To tap wind energy, services of scientists and experts from the Centre for Wind Energy Technology were roped in and they monitored the 10 centres to tap wind energy in the hill areas, added Thanga.

The team is led by Dr E Sreevalsan and they will submit a detailed project report.

To a query on the salient features of the policy, Thanga said that since the Cabinet has to first pass the policy and adopt it as an Act it would not be proper to announce its features now.

A meeting to discuss the policy was also convened by Chief Secretary Jarnail Singh today.

Manipur offers excellent scope to harness renewable energy, particularly wind energy, said Thanga.

Wind energy can be tapped from almost all the hills of Manipur, he said and added that there is also scope to harness hydro energy and sunlight.

Today's meeting decided to urge the Cabinet to pass the policy at the earliest possible, said Thanga and added optimistically that funds will not be a constraint.

At the moment the are 924 villages which do not have power supply and out of these 95 percent are in the hills.

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