The Chhattisgarh Government has targeted to install solar power plants with a total generation capacity of 1,700 MW during the coming months, Additional Chief Secretary, Energy Department, N Baijendra Kumar said on Tuesday.
Chairing a review meeting at the headquarters of Chhattisgarh Renewable Energy Development Agency (CREDA) here, Kumar said that it is targeted to establish solar power plants in all the government establishments across the State.
He said that as per the directives of Chief Minister Raman Singh, the schools and Anganwadis must have the solar power plants established on a priority basis.
Kumar also asked officials that they should motivate the house owners and farmers to make maximum use of solar energy to meet their power supply requirements.
Kumar also stated that setting up solar power plants in remote settlements should be a priority.
He said that many private sector companies have evinced interest in generating solar power in the State.
CREDA CEO S K Shukla informed in the meeting that a total of 476 villages and 376 “Majra Tolas’ have been electrified in the State so far.
This apart, many schools, colleges, hostels, health centres, police stations, collectorates, panchayat buildings, guest houses, banks and street lights are utilising solar energy while producing 5,232 Kv power in the State.
Notably, 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 unelectrified villages within 1000 days i.e. by May 1, 2018 in the entire country.
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 timeline for monitoring.
A total of 7,991 villages have been electrified till date in the country. Out of remaining 10,461 villages, 455 villages are uninhabitated. 6,739 villages are to be electrified through grid, 2,911 villages to be electrified through off- grid where grid solutions are out of reach due to geographical barriers and 356 villages are to be electrified by the State Governments on their own .
A total of 1654 villages were electrified during April 2015 to August 14, 2015 and after taking initiative by the Central Government for taking it on a mission mode, 6,337 additional villages have been electrified from August 15, 2015 to May 29 , 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.