Chandigarh, Feb 5 Under a new Union government scheme, 60 cities in the country, including Gurgaon and Faridabad, would be developed as Solar or Green Cities during the 11th Plan period with a view to cut down conventional energy demand by 10 percent in five years.

Under the scheme, each of the 60 urban local governments would be provided a total of Rs 50 lakh assistance of which Rs 10 lakh would be for preparation of a Master Plan, Rs 10 lakh for setting up a Solar Cell in the city council, Rs 10 lakh for implementation of the plan over five years and the remaining Rs 20 lakh for other promotional activities.

Under the programme, of the 60 cities having population between 5 lakh to 50 lakh that would be provided assistance during the 11th Plan period, in principle approval for 15 cities including Gurgaon has already been accorded by the Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, a ministry spokesman said here today.

The in principle approval for Faridabad would also be accorded soon, the spokesman said while spelling out details of the new programme called" Development of Solar Cities".

The programme aims at enabling/empowering urban local governments to adopt energy efficiency measures and ensure greater use of renewable energy so as to reduce the projected demand for conventional energy by a minimum of 10 per cent by the end of five years.