The Agreement for the project was signed by Sameer Kumar Khare, Joint Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, on behalf of the Government of India; K S Popli, Chairman and Managing Director, on behalf of IREDA; and Hisham Abdo, Acting Country Director, World Bank India, on behalf of the World Bank.  

IREDA will utilise the funding under this project to develop the common infrastructure such as power pooling substations, intra-park transmission infrastructure and provide access to roads, water supply and drainage, among others. While some states intend to provide a full range of infrastructure services to the selected private or public sector developers, others plan to provide only pooling stations to facilitate internal evacuation. This, in turn, is expected to facilitate solar power investment by the selected developers in support of the Government of India's efforts to increase the share of electricity that comes from renewable energy.

"India's goal of scaling up the provision of clean energy will require a vibrant market for solar investments," said Hisham Abdo, Acting Country Director, World Bank India. "The challenge for this project is to go beyond investments; it is to deepen the solar market," he added.

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