A total of 10 more villages in Chhattisgarh were reported electrified between December 19 to 25 this year under Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojna (DDUGJY), the Central Government has informed.
Nationwide, a total of 102 villages have been electrified across the country during the aforesaid period under DDUGJY, it was informed.
Out of these electrified villages, 17 villages belong to Assam, 9 to Bihar, 10 to Chhattisgarh, 29 to Jharkhand, 5 to Manipur, 30 to Odisha and 1 each to Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.
In view of the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi’s address to the nation on Independence Day, the Central Government has decided to electrify remaining 18,452 un-electrified villages within 1,000 days i.e. by May 1, 2018.
The project has been taken on mission mode and strategy for electrification consists of squeezing the implementation schedule to 12 months and also dividing village electrification process in 12 Stage milestones with defined timelines for monitoring.
A total of 11,429 villages have been electrified till date. Out of remaining 7,023 villages, 698 villages are uninhabited. 3,775 villages are to be electrified through grid, 2,502 villages to be electrified through off-grid where grid solutions are out of reach due to geographical barriers and 48 villages are to be electrified by State Government.
Total 1,654 villages were electrified during April 2015 to August 14, 2015 and after taking initiative by Government of India for taking it on mission mode, 9,775 additional villages have been electrified from August 15, 2015 to December 25, 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.
Notably, Chhattisgarh is among two other States mainly Maharashtra and Telangana which have assured to electrify all villages including left Wing Extremism (lWE) areas by March 2018, the Central Government has informed.
Notably, the three States- Maharashtra, Telangana and Chhattisgarh have also assured to electrify all villages excluding lWE areas by March 2017, it informed.
The Chhattisgarh Government has targetted to spend Rs 5,036 crore for augmenting rural electrification and energy distribution system, officials here informed.
Notably, the power supply distribution augmentation system project would be funded by Central Government grant, equity contribution from State and loan from financial institutions.
The State-owned Chhattisgarh State Power Distribution Company ltd (CSPDCl) which is implementing the project has sought additional funding support from the Central Government for achieving 100 per cent electrification of villages in Bastar region by FY 2018.
The special scheme would require additional finding support of Rs 665 crores of additional investment from the work carried out under Deendayal Upadhyay Gram Jyoti Yojana , officials informed.
Notably, Chief Minister Raman Singh had recently reviewed works of Energy Department and issued directives to complete construction of 34 key power sub-stations in various districts of state including tribal stronghold Bastar and Surguja divisions within 18 months.
The construction cost of these 34 power sub-stations is estimated to be Rs 2,100 crore.
The Chief Minister said in the meeting that keeping in view the demands and requests for electricity supply received from villagers during state-wide lok Suraaj Abhiyan, these power substations should be constructed within the time-limit on priority basis, so that quality electricity supply could be ensured in far-off rural regions.
In the meeting officials informed that two power substation of 400/220KV will be constructed in Jagdalpur and Dhamtari, eight power substations of 220/132 KV will be constructed in Rajim, Borjhara (Gariaband), Parsada, Kawardha, Dharsiva, Narayanpur, Jagdalpur and Bilaspur. likewise, 24 power substations of 132/33 KV will be constructed in Koni, Ravanbhata, Batauli, Kondatarai, Sukma, Charama, lormi, Dabra, Bakhara, Vandanapuling, Shivrinarayan, Wadrafnagar, Kansabel, Bijapur, Pakhanjur, Nagri, Indagaon, Mohla, Rajpur, Dornapal, Takhatpur, Basna, Berla, and Renki (Korba).
In the meeting, it was informed that the electrification of villages not covered under 2,685 hamlets being electrified under Deendayal Upadhyay Gram Jyoti Yojana at the cost of nearly Rs 1250 crore and the villages being electrified using solar energy, is in progress.
It was also informed in the meeting that till March 2015, the State had 1,080 villages without electricity, out of which 402 villagers were electrified in year 2015-16. In year 2016-17, target of electrification of 678 villages has been set. Against which, electrification of 80 villages has been done and that of remaining is in progress.
The Government has also targetted to electrify all the 19,000 villages in the State with solar power during the next two years.
Notably, Chhattisgarh Renewable Energy Development Agency (CREDA) has invested Rs 400 crores during last 11 years in developing infrastructure for solar power generation which had resulted in 40 MW of electricity being generated from non conventional energy sources. The Chhattisgarh Government is targetting 100 per cent household electrification by financial year 2017-18.
Notably, as on March 2015, Chhattisgarh had 63.6 households with electrification rate of 84.5 per cent, officials informed.
The State Government is attaching highest priority to power sector and is committed to provide full support to all utilities for ensuring quality power supply.
Notably, Chhattisgarh is expected to add 14,140 MW of additional power generation capacity in its thermal plants between November 2015 to March 2022, according to the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) in its perspective transmission plan report prepared for 20 years ( 2014-34).
The objective of the plan is to present broad outlines of the requirement of additional transmission system in the Indian grid during the next two decades. The National Electricity Plan is under preparation u/S 3(4) of the Electricity Act 2003. This Plan would inter-alia give generation capacity addition for period up to 2021-22 based on integrated resource planning requirements for the country.
In the absence of the generation addition programme for 13th Plan period, an estimate was made considering the ongoing and likely capacity addition for the conventional generation projects. For the renewable generation projects, as explained above, we do not have data corresponding to the 175 GW RES target, as such the modelling and analysis was carried out with only the known RE generation projects.
Major high capacity transmission corridors have already been planned and which are under implementation would be sufficient to meet import/export of power among various regions in the year 2021-22.