“It will cost around Rs 3.38 billion to install solar lights and the municipalities have sought a grant amount of approximately Rs 2.15 billion from the government for the purpose,” said a press release issued by the MoFALD.

Officials informed that the MoFALD had already allocated a grant amount of Rs 1 billion to the 96 municipalities for the upcoming fiscal year 2016/17 in order to implement the ‘Public Participation Based Solar Street Light Programme’.

The amount will be spent on installation of as many as 43,851 solar-powered street lamps in the designated municipal areas. Of them, Kathmandu Metropolitan City and Lalitpur Sub-metropolitan city will get 7,369 and 2,082 solar lights respectively. Major municipal areas, including Kathmandu, Lalitpur, Bhaktapur, Damak, Biratnagar, Birgunj and Dharan have been entitled to more solar lights on the basis of urbanisation and population.

The government, local bodies and consumers will bear 60, 25, and 15 per cent of total cost in the Kathmandu Metropolitan City respectively. In other places, the government will make an investment of 65 per cent while local bodies would bear 20 per cent and consumers 15 per cent. The government, local bodies, and consumers will bear 70, 20 and 10 per cent of total cost respectively in highly-deprived settlements.

According to the MoFALD, the installation of solar lights will be completed within August 31 of the fiscal year 2017/18. The programme is aimed at illuminating urban and rural settlements with solar-powered lights and saving consumption of electricity to reduce the burden of load-shedding. It is expected to save at least six megawatts of electricity.