Chhattisgarh had a total of 98 villages electrified out of 1080 so far under Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojna (DDUGJY), the Central Government has informed.
As on date, a total of 982 villages remain to be electrified while work of electrification had been under progress in 91 villages and there are 69 villages under ‘Energisation’ in Chhattisgarh.
Notably, Chhattisgarh had 33 villages electrified as on November 11, 2015 during the current financial year, the Centre had informed earlier.
The Union Ministry of Power has electrified 160 villages last week (ending on January 2, 2016) in the country. Out of these electrified villages, 57 villages in Chhattisgarh, 40 in Odisha, 27 in Bihar, 16 in Rajasthan, 9 in Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh each and one village falls in states of Tripura and Assam each. Electrification of 160 villages resulted in overall increase of 42 percent over the week before of ongoing electrification process under DDUGJY.
In view of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s address to nation, on Independence Day, the Central government has decided to electrify remaining 18,452 un-electrified villages by May 1, 2018.
The project has been taken on mission mode and strategy for electrification consists of squeezed implementation schedule of 12 months with 12 Stage milestones for village electrification monitoring with defined timelines.
The Chhattisgarh Government last month announced 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 Rs7466 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.
Notably, the Chhattisgarh State Power Generation Company ltd (CSPGCl) has three major projects in the hydro power sector lined up for development in the coming financial year.
The proposed projects are Matnar Hydro Power Project (HPP) ( 3x20) MW ( 60 MW) in Bastar district, Kanhar HPP ( 2x25) MW (50 MW) in Surguja district and Rehgar HPP ( 3x32) MW (96 MW) in Surguja district, officials stated.
The Chhattisgarh Government is now going all out to develop sizable hydro power potential to electrify villages in remote pockets of the State.
Notably, the Chhattisgarh Renewable Energy Development Agency (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.
The proposed projects are going to work in isolated mode. The capacity of the project shall be designed to fulfill the agricultural pump and lighting load requirement of the villages/hamlets within the vicinity of the project. Therefore electrical load demand survey has to be conducted in the nearby area of the project site covering required load requirement and provision for the future demand, they stated.
A survey for power distribution through local grid using weather proof cables and locally available wooden pole or with any suitable material using cost effective method would be conducted. A schematic drawing showing the houses/schools proposed to be electrified along with their distance from the powerhouse and the power evacuation arrangement shall be submitted for each project separately.
Firstly identification of the nearest/surrounding villages from projects for electrification by conducting the survey of requirement of power per day to villagers/houses would be carried out.
The suggested sites for development of hydro power projects should be able to generate the power of designed capacity for at least 10 months in a year as well as the project should cater the minimum load demand of the village within proximity
A survey for power distribution through local grid using weather proof cables and locally available wooden pole would also be carried out.