Assam state will be the first in India to use the "green" power and one of the first places in the world to tap the energy potential of the fast-growing grass.

The state plans to set up two one-megawatt capacity power plants that run on bamboo by February.

"This would be the first of its kind where we are using bamboo and bamboo wastes to generate electricity," Vinay S. Oberoi, director of the National Mission on Bamboo Applications, told AFP Thursday.

"This would not only be cost effective, but also highly eco-friendly."

The government organization, which has centers in five northeastern states, funds research into commercial, industrial and other uses for bamboo, which grows widely in the area.

India, the world's largest producer of bamboo after China, grows about 80 million tons of the grass each year, more than half of it in the northeast.

The two power projects will cost an estimated total of 100 million rupees (2.2 million dollars), and were designed and developed by scientists at the Indian Institute of Science in the southern city of Bangalore, which has been working on turning bamboo into gas, and then electricity.

"We are confident the commercial success of gasification of bamboo for generation of electricity would help us to solve the energy crisis facing India and allow our experts to pursue such ventures on a bigger scale," Oberoi said.

The electricity produced by the bamboo-based power plants, about 2,000,000 watts a year, will be used by local paper mills initially.

"Power from the two plants would be now used by two paper mills although such bamboo-fuelled energy could be suitably used in off-grid and remote locations, and to meet captive industry and utility needs," Oberoi said.

Experts from the Bangalore-based scientific institute are working with the bamboo organization to develop a similar medium-sized power plant for the Indian army in the northeast.

Oberoi said bamboo was also being used for pre-fabricated quake-shelters in Indian Kashmir.

A 7.6-magnitude earthquake in October killed more than 73,000 people in Pakistan and 1,300 in India, and left more than 3.5 million people homeless. "We gave the idea to the Jammu and Kashmir government and now they are placing orders to at least four manufacturers of bamboo shelters," Oberoi said.

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