After Prime Minister Narendra Modi dedicated to the nation a solar power project in Rewa, Madhya Pradesh, on Friday, the PMO quoted him as saying in Hindi: “Today, Rewa has indeed created history. Rewa has been famous for the river Narmada and white tigers. To this has now been added Asia’s largest solar power project.”
The capacity of the Rewa project is 750MW (three units of 250MW each).
But the solar plant that is considered the largest in India, let alone Asia, is located in Rajasthan.
The Bhadla Solar Park in Jodhpur has a capacity of 2,250MW, according to a list of the five largest solar power plants in India profiled on April 30 this year by NS Energy, an industry web site.
A solar power project in Karnataka claims the second position in India. The Pavagada plant has a capacity of 2,000MW. The Rewa plant is ranked fourth on this list.
The Rewa project that Modi dedicated is spread over 3,700 acres. The Bhadla park covers 10,000 acres and the Shakti Sthala solar power project in Pavagada, 13,000 acres.
“This (Rewa) project comprises three solar generating units of 250MW each located on a 500 hectare plot of land situated inside a Solar Park (total area 1,500 hectares),” the PMO had said a day before the dedication.
After the BJP’s official Twitter handle and several senior leaders such as Amit Shah and J.P. Nadda repeated the claim attributed to Modi, Karnataka Congress chief D.K. Shivakumar cited the capacity of the Pavagada plant.
“BJP Central Govt is claiming today that it inaugurated Asia's Largest Solar Plant of 750MW at Rewa, MP. What then is the 2000MW Solar Plant in Pavagada, Karnataka, which was built in just 3 years by @INCKarnataka govt and has been operational since 2018?” tweeted Shivakumar, who was the Karnataka energy minister when the project was envisioned.
Responding to the PMO's tweet, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi tweeted: “Asatyagrahi.”
Congress veteran and former environment minister Jairam Ramesh too referred to the PMO tweet and wrote: “Asatyamev Jayate.”
There was no official response from the Union ministry of renewable energy on the claim on Rewa.
But Madhya Pradesh chief minister and BJP veteran Shivraj Singh Chouhan said that Congress leaders had failed to understand the difference between a solar "park" and a solar "plant". Other senior BJP leaders followed suit, ribbing the Congress for allegedly not knowing the difference.
But neither the PMO’s tweet nor the pre-inauguration media release issued by it had used the word "plant", choosing to call it a solar "project" or “park”. Among BJP leaders, Shah used the word "project" in his tweet while Nadda chose "plant". The BJP Twitter handle used the word "plant".
When the BJP's response to the Congress was pointed out to Jairam Ramesh, he told The Telegraph: "The BJP defence is a typical post-facto too-clever-by-half defence."
Random searches of the three usages online revealed that park, project and plant are used interchangeably.
According to the NS Energy profile of the five largest solar power plants in India, the third position in India goes to the 1,000MW Ultra Mega Solar Park in Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh.
