Seven lakh slum-dwellers are to get compact fluorescent lamps (CFL) free of cost in a few months.

This will be in the initial phase of implementation of the scheme of free distribution of CFLs, which Chief Minister Jayalalithaa inaugurated through video conferencing from her Kodanad camp office in The Niligirs district on Monday. To mark the inauguration, she handed over such lamps to seven beneficiaries.

In the State, there are 14.62 lakh huts with power connections. The scheme has been designed to cover all the huts.

Estimated to cost Rs. 8.77 crore, the measure envisages supply of a 9-watt CFL to each slum-dweller. About 40 megawatt (MW) of power would be saved, according to an official release.

The Chief Minister also commissioned a roof-top solar photovoltaic plant of 60 kilo watt, installed at a cost of Rs. 55.8 lakh at the 10-storeyed headquarters of Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (TANGEDCO). The plant would generate about one lakh units a year. Apart from meeting a portion of energy requirements of the Tangedco, it would supply the excess energy to the State grid.

Besides, 50 sub-stations, at a total cost of Rs. 509.88 crore, were declared open by the Chief Minister. They included two 230-kilo volt (KV) substations, twenty nine 110-KV substations and nineteen 33-KV substations.