The BJP led NDA Government stands committed on energy access to every single person in the country at an affordable price, said Union Minister of State for Power, Coal, Mines and Renewable Energy Piyush Goyal on Thursday.
Speaking at India’s largest expo for power and electrical sector SWITCH 2016 at Vadodara in Gujarat, Goyal said that without cheap and affordable power, industrial development too was not possible and the Modi led Government was working on providing adequate power to industry and business in order to make them globally competitive.
Praising Gujarat for providing 24X7 electricity to all 18,000 villages across the State, the Minister said that when he took charge as power Minister, straight away he decided to visit Gujarat to understand revolution in power sector under the leadership of former Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
“We are determined to replicate Gujarat’s success story in Centre with an aim to provide electricity to every village of India. The State has also responded tremendously on Central Government’s UJAlA Scheme. In India 16 crore lED bulbs have been distributed in 17 months under the scheme. But alone Gujarat with around 5 per cent population of the country, distributed more than 2.48 crore lED bulbs in less than 150 days,” said
Goyal, adding that more than 80 lakh bulbs were distributed alone in Vadodara district.
According to him, the Central Government was committed to ramp up power generation capacity in renewable energy sector too and aiming for 40 per cent power from renewable energy sources of country total power generation by 2030.
In this mission too Gujarat would remain leader as lots of work was going on in the state in solar and wind energy sectors, he added.
Earlier Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani inaugurated the event in presence of eminent dignitaries from Power and electrical sector across the world. The five-day biennial expo expects to attract over large number of footfalls in terms of buyers, sellers, solution providers, entrepreneurs, policymakers and general public.
On the occasion Rupani said that Vadodara alone manufacturing 23 per cent of India’s total production of electrical equipment and hence it made sense to organise the event at the cultural capital of Gujarat.
“Gujarat is already power surplus state. But we wouldn’t become complacent as the state government want to promote renewable energy sector. Already Asia’s largest Solar park was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he was Gujarat CM at Charanaka in North Gujarat. The park will have 1600 MW solar power generation capacity once it would become fully operational,” said the CM Rupani.