PM Heaps Praise On Bowenpally Vegetable Market

Prime Minister Narendra Modi today expressed his appreciation for Hyderabad's famed Bowenpally vegetable market.

Speaking on the seventy-third episode of his Man Ki Baat radio program, the PM congratulated the market's authorities and traders for successfully starting a bio-waste power generation project in the market, and for turning "waste into wealth".

"I am extremely happy to know of the success of the innovative power production project started at the Bowenpally vegetable market. The efforts of the market authorities to produce electricity from vegetable waste is truly commendable. Where produce in sabzi mandis rots due to multiple reasons, often causing many health and sanitation problems, and is then discarded, the traders at Hyderabad's Bowenpally mandi are using the rotten produce to generate electricity - they are turning waste into wealth. This is the power of innovation," Modi said.

"The project yields 500 units of electricity and 30 kgs of biofuel from every 10 tonnes of waste generated in the market. This electricity is then used to fulfil the power needs of the market itself. The biofuel, less polluting than traditional cooking fuels, too is being used for cooking in the mandi canteen. The creation of a sustainable space of this nature is a matter of pride for the state," he added.

On the program, the PM also spoke about various similar initiatives being taken in other states - he praised the efforts of a gram panchayat in Panchkula, in Haryana, for using waste water to irrigate farm lands; the people of Tawang, in Arunachal Pradesh, for manufacturing Mon Shugu, a form of eco-friendly paper; and a young woman entrepreneur for starting a strawberry-growing project in Bundelkhand region, between Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.

He then told the citizens of the country that his show would give them the chance to learn about similar inspiring projects in the future as well.

Addressing a less happier subject, the PM also spoke about the ongoing farmers' agitation, and expressed his "anguish" at the violent turn the agitation took on Republic Day.