Gujarat to have capacity to produce 40 lakh MT green hydrogen yearly: Governor

Gandhinagar: The budget session of the Gujarat Assembly commenced today with the address of the Governor of the state, Acharya Devvrat in the house.

Here are the main highlights of his speech in state assembly:

✓ A total amount of Rs 15,407.82 crore has been directly deposited into the bank accounts of 64.13 lakh beneficiary farmers in 15 installments till date under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana.

✓ New Centres of Excellence are being set up in Ahmedabad, Jamnagar, Kheda, Narmada, Panchmahal, and Aravalli in the state to provide farmers with advanced technology for horticultural crops.

✓ Villages in Tharad, Dhanera, Deesa, Deodar, and Kankrej talukas of Banaskantha district in North Gujarat have received in-principle approval for two new pipeline projects. The scheme will benefit more than 15,000 hectares of irrigation.

✓ Construction of mini power stations at different places on Vadodara, Miyagam, Saurashtra, and Kutch branch canals of the Sardar Sarovar Narmada scheme is in progress. It is planned to generate 85.46 MW of power from these stations.

✓ Average per capita electricity consumption in Gujarat was 2283 units in 2021–22, which has increased to 2402.49 units in 2022–23. Electricity is a major necessary measure for the social and economic development of any state, reflecting the state’s progress.

✓ Gujarat is capable and ready to emerge as a global leader in green hydrogen production. Recently, the state government announced Land Policy 2023 for the development of renewable energy projects and earmarked two lakh hectares of land for allotment to developers. As a result, about 40 lakh metric tonnes of green hydrogen production capacity per year will be achieved.

✓ Exports from the Gift City, emerging as a global financial hub, increased from Rs 3,402 crore in FY 2020–21 to Rs 12,325 crore in FY 2022–23 and Rs 19,317.19 crore in FY 2023–24 by December 2023.

✓ To boost fishing activity, work has started to develop fishing harbors in Veraval, Madhwa, and Sutrapada at a cost of Rs 1300 crore.

✓ Separate pension disbursement offices have been started in districts where the number of pensioners is high to ensure pensioners do not face inconvenience. So far, separate pension disbursement offices have been started in Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar, Vadodara, Rajkot, and Surat districts.

✓ The work of developing the government libraries at Vadodara, Anand, Jamnagar, Bharuch, and Vyara as ‘Smart Libraries’ and modernising the State Central Library, Gandhinagar, is in progress.

✓ The grass improvement programme of the state government has achieved incredible results in grass production. A lot of growth has been achieved in hay production in the last ten years. DeshGujarat