A total of 406 villages were found electrified out of 1,080 so far during a survey conducted by the Central Government in Chhattisgarh recently.
Overall, in the country, a total of 116 villages have been electrified across the country during week ending April 3, 2016) under Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojna (DDUGJY).
Out of these electrified villages, 11 villages fall in Arunachal Pradesh, 27 in Assam, 4 in Bihar, 46 in Chhattisgarh, 12 in Jharkhand, 4 in Madhya Pradesh, 1 in Manipur, 6 in Odisha and 5 in Rajasthan.
During 2015-16, 4,781 villages have been electrified till date. Out of remaining 13,671 villages, 10,690 villages are to be electrified through grid, 1998 villages are to be electrified through off-grid where grid solutions are out of reach due to geographical barriers and 983 villages are to be electrified by State Governments on their own.
Total 1654 villages were electrified during April 2015 to August 14, 2015 and after taking initiative by Central Government for taking it on mission mode, 3127 additional villages have been electrified from August 15, 2015 to January 31, 2016.
In order to expedite the progress further, a close monitoring is being done through Gram Vidyut Abhiyanta (GVA) and various actions are also being taken on regular basis like reviewing the progress on monthly basis during the RPM meeting, sharing of list of villages which are at the stage of under energisation with the state Discom, identifying the villages where milestone progress are delayed, officials stated.
Notably, the Chhattisgarh Government announced recently that for development of power sector and strengthen infrastructure related to it, a five-year Capital Investment Plan (CIP) has been chalked out.
Under this plan, funds to tune of around `7466 crore have been included and time duration for the visionary scheme has been fixed from 2016-17 to 2020-21.
The works for various schemes including general schemes such as Chief Minister Urban Electrification Scheme, Deendayal Upadhyay Gram Jyoti Yojana, Mukhyamantri Manjra Tola Vidhyutikaran Yojana, EITC, IT projects, civil works and others will be carried out. Along with extension of 4500 km-long 33 kv line, as many as 290 substations of 33/11 kv will be developed in the State.
The State has recorded significant rise in number of power connection holders. During the time of Chhattisgarh’s formation, the State had around 18 lakh power connection holders which is now around 42 lakh.