Chhattisgarh had been consistently adding villages in its electrified list to meet the Centre’s target of electrifying all villages on or before May 1, 2018.
Notably, 12 more villages were electrified in Chhattisgarh during week ending March 20, 2016, officials stated.
Nationally, 337 villages have been electrified across the country during last week (from March 14 to 20, 2016) under Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojna (DDUGJY). Out of these electrified villages, 67 in Odisha, 49 in Jharkhand , 66 villages in Uttar Pradesh, 30 in Arunachal Pradesh , 41 in Bihar, 49 in Assam, 12 in Chhattisgarh, 9 in Madhya Pradesh and 11 in Rajasthan 1 each in Himachal Pradesh, Manipur & J &K .
Notably, a total of six more villages were electrified in Chhattisgarh during week ending March 13, 2016.
In view of the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi’s address to nation, on Independence Day, Government of India has decided to electrify remaining 18,452 un-electrified villages within 1000 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, officials stated.
During 2015-16, 6156 villages have been electrified till date. Out of remaining 12,296 villages, 8496 villages are to be electrified through grid, 3312 villages are to be electrified through off-grid where grid solutions are out of reach due to geographical barriers and 488 villages are to be electrified by the respective State Governments.
A total of 1654 villages were electrified during April 2015 to August 14, 2015 and after taking initiative by Central government for taking it on Mission Mode, 4502 additional villages have been electrified from August 15, 2015 to March 6, 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, 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 Rs 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.