Most rooftop solar vendors in India are not short of leads right now. They are short of install days. Agreements pile up after the festive season, crews get pulled between too many rooftops, and homes that signed weeks ago are still waiting for a site survey.
Under PM Surya Ghar, the ministry is now watching that backlog. The fix is a schedule that matches what you sign to what your crews can install.
Why the backlog matters now
In a notice dated 24 August 2026, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) deactivated 66 registered vendors for one month. Its review of portal data found that these vendors held far more applications at the "Agreement Uploaded" stage than they had shown they could install in the April to June 2026 quarter.
Deactivated vendors could not take new applications, though they could still finish installs already in hand. MNRE also advised all vendors not to hold an application for more than 60 days without a valid reason, and to accept work in line with their real execution capacity.
The scheme closes at the end of March 2027, so the next few months are the busiest you will see. Overselling now is the fastest way to lose that window.
One plan per home
Treat every signed home as a small project with its own timeline, not a line in a spreadsheet. The stages are the same every time:
- Agreement signed and uploaded
- Site survey and roof check
- Design and material allocation
- Installation day
- Net meter request and installation
- Inspection and handover to the customer
Make each stage a task with a date and an owner. Mark the agreement date and the handover as milestones. Add a check at day 45 so any home still waiting on install gets flagged well before it reaches 60 days.
Our guide to a solar installation timeline on a Gantt chart shows how these stages line up for a single job.
Link the stages so delays show up early
Installation should not be booked until the survey is done and the material is allocated. The net meter request should follow installation, and handover waits for inspection. Set those as dependencies.
When a survey slips by four days, every later task on that home moves with it, and you see straight away whether the home will cross the 60 day line.
Run a weekly capacity check
Once a week, before the sales team signs anything new, count three numbers:
- Homes signed but not yet installed
- Installs your crews actually finished in each of the last four weeks
- Crew days available over the next three weeks, after leave and festivals
Divide the open homes by your real weekly install rate. If the answer is more than about six weeks of work, slow down new agreements or add a crew before you sign more.
If you run crews across several rooftops at once, our post on scheduling solar installs across multiple jobs covers how to balance crew days between sites.
Plan three weeks ahead, not three months
Pull the next three weeks into a 3-week lookahead: which homes get surveyed, which get installed, which are waiting on the discom for the net meter. Confirm materials and crews for week one, and fix gaps in weeks two and three before they arrive.
Keep a little float for rain and roof access problems. Our guide to planning weather delays into the schedule explains how much to leave.
Give site crews the plan on their phones
Most delays start on site: a damaged roof, an absent customer, a missing inverter. When crews update their tasks from the roof, the office knows the same day.
Putting it on one plan
Set up each signed home with its six stages, dependencies between them and milestones at the agreement and handover. Assign every task to a named crew lead, set priorities by how long the home has been waiting, and review capacity every week before signing more.
Zace gives you Gantt charts, milestones, task dependencies, task assignment and priorities, on web, Android and iOS. When a survey slips, you move it once and the whole job updates for everyone.
Frequently asked questions
How long can a PM Surya Ghar vendor hold an application?
In its August 2026 notice, MNRE advised registered vendors not to retain consumer applications for more than 60 days without valid reasons, and to take on applications in line with their actual installation capacity.
Why did MNRE deactivate PM Surya Ghar vendors?
MNRE deactivated 66 vendors for one month after portal data showed they held far more applications at the Agreement Uploaded stage than they had installed in the April to June 2026 quarter. They could still complete existing installations during that period.
How should a solar vendor schedule rooftop installs?
Give every signed home its own plan with stages for survey, design, installation, net metering and inspection, link the stages as dependencies, and check open homes against your real weekly install rate before signing more.
Sign what your crews can install, and the backlog stops being a risk to your business.
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