The 140 remaining villages/hamlets in insurgency-hit districts of Chhattisgarh will soon be electrified using solar energy.

The Chhattisgarh State Renewable Energy Development Agency (CREDA) has already electrified most of villages/hamlets in red zones of Chhattisgarh,  Executive Engineer, CREDA, Rajiv Gyani told The Pioneer.

“Of the total 27 districts in Chhattisgarh, almost all remote and forest villages in the districts have been electrified by CREDA. Around 140 villages/hamlets which are falling under red zones like Sukma, Bijapur, Narayanpur, Sarguja and Dantewada will soon be powered by solar energy,” he said.

Under ‘Remote Village Electrification Programme’, since 2003-04, CREDA has powered around 58,000 households in 1700 villages/hamlets across Chhattisgarh with solar energy, informed Gyani, adding “a number of villages/hamlets in the State which are either situated in or around the close vicinity of national parks, tiger reserves and wildlife sanctuaries have been electrified with solar energy.”

Due to some complications, villages and hamlets falling in and around the proximity of national parks, tiger reserves and wildlife sanctuaries that are not connected to the national grid are now getting power supply, informed officials .

They further maintained that almost all villages under Barnawapara Wildlife Sanctuary are now electrified by CREDA under Remote Village Electrification Programme.

According to Gyani, to ensure proper functioning and maintenance of facility installed in the village, CREDA employs a villager as local Operator. Moreover, to fix technical problems, the agency also employs a Technician who serves in a cluster of 10-15 villages while major snags are being resolved by CREDA’s experts.

 Taking the initiative ahead, CREDA has enhanced the capacity of some already electrified solar villages by sensing their increasing demand for power and is going to enhance the energy supply capacity of more villages shortly.

Notably, the Chhattisgarh government is now also going all out to develop sizable hydro power potential to electrify villages in remote pockets of the State.

CREDA had earlier invited reputed consultants  from the field of Development of Mini/Micro/Small Hydel projects for conducting detailed survey, investigation and preparation of Detailed Project Report (DPR) for the development of Mini/Micro Hydro Power projects at various locations and electrification of remote villages through hydro projects in Chhattisgarh State, officials stated.

Notably, Chhattisgarh is also among the leading States for implementing biomass power projects such as Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat  and Tamil Nadu, according to  Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE).

Chhattisgarh had biomass projects generating a total of 249 MW of power as on March 31, 2015.

The total power generation from biomass projects by 12 other States during the aforesaid period in Megawatts is as follows- Andhra Pradesh ( 288), Gujarat ( 30.50), Haryana ( 13.50), Karnataka ( 107.50), Madhya Pradesh (26), Maharshtra ( 198), Odisha ( 20), Punjab ( 68.50), Rajasthan ( 101), Tamil Nadu ( 211.70), Uttar Pradesh ( 54) and West Bengal ( 26).  The MNRE provides Central Financial Assistance at the rate of Rs25.00 lakh per  Mega Watt in special category States and Rs.20 lakh per Mega Watt for other States with a cap of Rs1.50 crore per project. 

Chhattisgarh produced 527.63 lakh cubic meters of bio-gas from family type bio-gas plants and large bio-gas plants  in the entire State during the 11th Five Year Plan period.

 The estimated State-wise production of bio-gas from family type bio-gas plants and large biogas plants installed in the country under different programmes of the Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) during the 11th Five Year Plan period is as follows (in lakh cubic metres)- Andhra Pradesh (9969.60), Assam(1616.33) Bihar (2325.94) Goa (71.83) Gujarat (8731.94) Haryana (1112.13) Himachal Pradesh (842.47) Jammu & Kashmir (47.44) Jharkhand (107.19) Karnataka (8213.62) Kerala (2399.30) Madhya Pradesh (5713.25) Maharashtra(15297.74) Manipur (38.80) Meghalaya (146.30) Mizoram (72.40) Nagaland (95.83) Odisha (4402.65) Punjab (2966.70) Rajasthan (1235.30) Sikkim (144.66) Tamil Nadu (5261.66) Tripura (53.25 )Uttar Pradesh(7765.80) Uttarakhand (531.37) West Bengal (6213.70).

About 6.10 lakh family type bio-gas plants were installed during the 11th Five Year Plan against a target of 6.47 lakh plants under the National Biogas and Manure Management Programme.

The data available with the Ministry pointed out that the  States which have taken  leadership position in implementation of bagasse cogeneration projects are Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh.