Rooftop solar in Lodhika GIDC (Metoda) and Khirasara

The biggest GIDC estate in the Rajkot table

When MSME-DI Rajkot compiled its district profile, its GIDC table (as on 2012) gave Lodhika GIDC 424.126 hectares and 1,534 plots, of which 1,494 had been allotted. That single estate made up more than half of all the GIDC land listed for the district at the time, which then still included Morbi. The same profile's list of larger units places CNC automation, bearing, casting and industrial oxygen makers at Metoda.

Plot sizes vary a lot across that area: some units have a few hundred square metres and a single bay, others long pre-engineered halls with crane gantries inside. Solar planning differs sharply between the two, so the sections below treat them separately.

What a Metoda machine shop actually draws

A typical machining unit here is a row of CNC lathes and vertical machining centres, a compressor, some grinders, coolant pumps and lights. These loads ramp up when the first shift starts and stay fairly level until evening, which is close to the shape of a solar day. Units that run a second shift into the night will still use most of their solar output during daylight hours.

Two kinds of neighbour behave differently. Casting units with induction melting draw far more power than any roof can supply, so solar trims only a small share of their bill. Gas plants that separate oxygen and nitrogen from air run large compressors around the clock. In both cases the roof will be fully used, but it covers a modest fraction of demand, and the installer can explain captive or open-access options if you need more.

• CNC turning and milling: steady day load, high self-use
• Bearing grinding and finishing lines: long shifts, good match
• Induction melting: heavy and spiky, roof covers little
• Air separation and compressed air plants: flat 24 hour load

Flatted sheds: one roof, many tenants

GIDC lists Lodhika among the first locations for its multi-storeyed sheds, where each building holds small units of 100 and 50 square metres. If your workshop is on an upper floor, the roof above is shared, and you cannot simply put panels on it for your own meter.

Group or virtual net metering, which would let several owners split one rooftop plant, is not yet in force in Gujarat; GERC's draft regulations of 2026 propose it. Until that changes, a shared building can usually connect solar only to one meter, most often the one for common lighting, lifts and water pumps. Owners can agree to do that first, and revisit individual shares when the rules allow. A common-services meter in a building like this carries a fairly small load, so a modest system sized to that meter is the safe first step.

Khirasara: build the roof for panels from day one

Khirasara was listed in 2012 as a proposed estate of 495.85 hectares, and by July 2025 GIDC was auctioning plots there alongside Lodhika, Chhatar and Dhoraji. Anyone allotted a plot in these recent rounds is likely still planning the shed.

That is the cheapest moment to plan for solar. Ask your structural designer to allow for the dead load and wind load of panels on the purlins, to keep the main roof face as free of skylights and turbo vents as practical, and to leave space near the main panel for an inverter and a cable route to the meter room. A roof sloping east and west on a long ridge works fine for solar; a north-south ridge gives one face that loses some output. Agree early, too, where the meter room and main LT panel will sit, because a long cable run from the far end of the roof loses power along the way.

PGVCL offices for Metoda and Lodhika

This area sits in PGVCL's Rajkot Rural circle. Under its Rajkot Rural division the office list shows separate Metoda and Lodhika sub-divisions, along with Kuvadava, Shapar-Veraval, Pardi, Paddhari and Ronki. Your bill names the one that serves your connection, and that office handles the meter change and the inspection after commissioning.

Under GERC's rules, systems up to 10 kW skip the technical feasibility study, which suits the smallest workshops. Larger LTMD and HT units here get solar set-off only between 7 am and 6 pm, so a unit's night shift is still billed in full.