New Delhi, May 29 (IANS) India has crossed a historic milestone by connecting 40 lakh homes to rooftop solar under the ‘PM Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana’, Union Petroleum and Gas Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Friday. Under the guidance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, this initiative is not only freeing the country's common citizens from electricity bills and making them ‘Atmanirbhar’ but also saving the environment. Puri posted on X.“India becomes superpower of solar power -- A major achievement in the direction of clean energy,” said the minister.Echoing similar sentiments, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said that your own roof is becoming a home of energy,

“Family is becoming empowered and life is becoming self-reliant. Under the PM Surya Ghar scheme, more than 40 lakh families have already connected with solar energy,” Goyal posted on X.Under the leadership of PM Modi, “this new India is not only saving electricity, but also scripting a new revolution of change in the energy sector,” he noted.Under the scheme, funds amounting to Rs 14,585.29 crore have been utilised in FY26 (till March 5), against Rs 7,822.92 crore in FY25.Launched in 2024, the PM Muft Bijli Yojana is a demand-driven scheme wherein all residential consumers in the country having grid connected electricity connection of the local discom can avail the benefits of the scheme, for the installation of Rooftop Solar systems, by applying on the National Portal of the scheme.

The government estimates that installations of rooftop solar systems in one crore households could produce renewable electricity of 1,000 billion units, potentially reducing emissions by 720 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalent over the 25‑year lifetime of the systems.The top five states in implementation as of 2025-end include Gujarat, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, and Rajasthan.The government is also implementing the National Green Hydrogen Mission (NGHM), with an objective to make India a global hub of production, usage and export of green hydrogen and its derivatives, the minister added.

/IANS