Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Friday directed the Energy Department to connect electricity to all left-out villages and habitations by the year 2019.
The Chief Minister issued this direction while reviewing performance of the Energy, Electronics and Information and Technology Department at the State Secretariat here.
It was revealed that over 7,000 villagers and human habitations were connected with electricity during the last year. With this, over 11.5 lakh households, including 3 lakh BPl families, have been connected with electricity. Besides, it was informed that steps have been taken the Odisha Hydro Power Corporation (OHPC) to establish two more power projects. A 15 mega watt solar project has begun operating at Manmunda in Boudh district.
According to the decision taken at the meeting, about 15,000 defunct transformers would be replaced by new ones in the coming four years. The proposals for setting up of 450 new 33/11 KV Substations and provision of 11 KV feeder line specially for the agriculture and fishing sector were discussed.
The Chief Minister advised the Electronics and IT Department to execute all recommendations of the Sam Pitroda-headed Technology Mission. It was too revealed that the State Government would adopt a new Telecom Policy during the current month.
The State recorded IT exports of Rs3,000 crore in 2015-16, 18 per cent more than the previous year. Odisha stands eighth in the IT exports in the country.