Shirdi (Maharashtra), July 30 (Inditop.com) Hindu and Muslim pilgrims visiting the shrine of Sai Baba in this town will be served food cooked with the help of a solar steam system, inaugurated by New and Renewable Energy Minister Farooq Abdullah Thursday, that officials say is the world’s largest.
The solar steam system can generate 3,500 kg of steam every day – enough to cook food for 20,000 people. It has been designed for cooking food for devotees visiting the shrine devoted to Sai Baba, a 19th century Sufi saint who was revered by Hindus and Muslims alike.
The total cost of the new system at Shirdi, some 90 km from Nashik, is estimated at Rs.1.33 crore for which a subsidy of Rs.58.4 lakh has been provided by the new and renewable energy ministry.
The system will result in annual savings of 100,000 kg of cooking gas. It has been designed in such a way that it will generate steam for cooking even in the absence of electricity to run the feed water pump for circulating water in the system.
The ministry offers support of up to 50 percent of the cost of such systems set up by non-profit bodies and up to 35 percent cost support to profit making bodies.
“Over 40 systems covering a dish area of about 12,000 sq metre have been supported by the ministry so far for various applications, though the major application is cooking only,” an official statement said.
Some of the large solar steam cooking systems installed include those at Mount Abu in Rajasthan for serving 10,000 people every day, and at Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh and Satyabhama university in Chennai, which cater to about 15,000 people a day.
