The complete installation has cost Rs 15,22,135 and provides for about 50% of the power requirement of the place at present.
Shahi Tipu Sultan Masjid located in Tollygunge area of Kolkata is all set to become the first mosque of West Bengal to be self-sufficient in generating electricity. So far, 35 solar panels have been installed on top of one of the buildings within the mosque campus. The complete installation has cost Rs 15,22,135 and provides for about 50% of the power requirement of the place at present. “Renovation of the mosque is in progress. Three new gates have been put up. There will be more lights put up on the gates and inside the campus and also on the boundary walls. There will also be amplifiers installed. The current capacity of power generation is 8.68 KW but we will need three times of it. At present we put it in the powergrid of CESC and get a reduction accordingly, in the power bill,” said Akhlaq Azam, one of the members of the project engineers’ committee.
He said that there was ample space at the Tollugunge mosque to put up more solar panels to generate power whereas separate plans are being made for its counterpart at Esplanade. “Some of the solar panels can also be installed in a tree formation. That is what we intend to do at Tipu Sultan masjid at Esplanade as there is a dearth of space,” Azam said. The mosque campus covers an area of about 7.5 bighas (10,034 sq mt). The masjid is identical in size to the one at Esplanade. There is a pond which has been dried up. There is a museum of Tipu Sultan, an Eidgah, a madrasah, and cemetery of the descendents of the Sultan.
Shahzada Anwar Ali, mutwalli or patron manager of the trustee board said that there were elaborate plans of increasing solar power projects and initiate a slew of social welfare and women empowerment schemes at both Tipu Sultan mosques. “At Tollygunge we are in talks with authorities to put up a computer training centre and tutorial for women coming from the lower section of society of all religion. The renovation would be done in such a manner that this mosque will turn into a tourist attraction,” said Ali. Talking about the mosque at Esplanade he said, “There are hundreds of Muslim working women in the area who don’t have any place to say their prayers. We intend to put up a separate, air-conditioned place for women with a separate entrance here where they can rest and say their prayers in comfort and according to Islamic laws.”
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