Illumination trial at Vellore Fort on I-Day

The district administration is going the green way to light up the Vellore Fort. It would tap solar and wind energy for the purpose. By the end of September, the historical fort will glow with LED and flood lights, reviving its past glory.

District Rural Development Agency (DRDA) and Power Grid Corporation of India would implement the Vellore Fort Lighting Scheme under Self Sufficiency Scheme (SSS) at a cost of `90 lakh.

“We received `45 lakh from Power Grid Corporation of India for the project five days ago under the SSS to implement the Vellore Fort Lighting scheme. We initially planned to light up the rampant walls and outer moat walls with flood lights and LED lights at 12 am on August 15. But we don’t have sufficient time, so we have planned to light up a few portions of the Fort on Wednesday,” District Collector Ajay Yadav said.

“We are implementing the scheme with the consent of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).

We are using only manpower and taking utmost care to ensure that the archaeological site is not be disturbed,” he added. 

The entire project would be completed by the end of September. Solar and wind power generation units would be put up at a cost of `30 lakh each. Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) controlling system, which would monitor and maintain the entire lighting scheme, would be established at a cost of `10 lakh, while `20 lakh would be spent on flood lights and procuring mannequins that would be dressed up like soldiers of the Vijayanagara Empire.

The project was being executed by AAPL Enviro Solution based in Madurai.

Adopting modern technology called ‘Shroud’, the project would be implemented to generate 20 kV of electricity per day through wind-solar hybrid energy system. “The solar and wind generation units will supplement each other. We will also be installing 120 batteries to store the electricity generated and it will provide a backup for three to four days,” added Yadav said.

Using the electricity generated through solar-wind hybrid energy system, a total of 20 LED lights would be put up on the bastion along the rampant wall and ten flood lights installed along the outer moat wall would be lighted. “We are planning to light up the fort for five to eight hours per day,” said the Collector.

The laying of cable lines was nearing completion. The master control room would be established in DRDA office on the  Collectorate premises. Project Director of DRDA would take care of the maintenance of infrastructure.