Delhi Budget 2025: Subsidies for solar panels; cables to go underground

Delhi CM Rekha Gupta announced the PM Surya Ghar scheme for solar subsidies, a ₹100 crore project for underground cables, and a power budget of ₹3,843 crore.

Delhi chief minister Rekha Gupta, while presenting the Delhi budget on Tuesday, announced a state-level extension of the PM Surya Ghar: Free Electricity Scheme, aimed at promoting domestic solar panel installations through subsidies. The initiative aligns with the government’s push for 24x7 power supply, particularly from renewable sources.

Overhead power cables in a shopping district. (Getty Images)

Gupta also unveiled a ₹100-crore pilot project to shift overhead power cables underground.

The budget allocated ₹3,843 crore for the power sector in 2025-26, an increase from ₹3,353 crore in 2024-25 revised estimates. An outlay of ₹3,183 crore was made for the sector in 2024-25 budget.

The CM said her government is in the process of signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Union government for the implementation of the PM Surya Ghar: Free Electricity Scheme.

A state-level extension of the same scheme aims to cover 230,000 rooftops with solar panels in Delhi over the next three years. “A subsidy of up to ₹78,000 will be provided to residential consumers,” Gupta said.

Further, the Delhi government plans to shift all overhead cables underground. “Overhead electricity wires not only deface the beauty of the city but are also risky from a security point of view. Therefore, my government has proposed shifting of high-tension and low-tension power lines, for which ₹100 crore has been allocated,” she said.

Binit Das, programme manager for renewable energy at the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), hailed Delhi’s solar initiatives. “Allocating ₹50 crore under the new PM Surya Ghar scheme is a positive step toward equipping 230,000 rooftops with solar energy and advancing clean energy adoption,” he said.