Surat: Surat could well become the first city in India to make solar water heating in all buildings, residential and commercial, mandatory.
Earlier, this year, the Union urban development ministry had made it mandatory that civic bodies of all 58 cities identified to be made “solar cities” change their construction bylaws to make solar energy compulsory for water heating systems.

The Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) will make the necessary changes in the bylaws of construction within a month. There are 10.2 lakh houses and nearly 65,000 commercial buildings in the city, which will have to switch over to solar water heating.