The Swachh Bharat Mission is a key initiative of the Government of India to improve health and cleanliness in the country. To give a boost to the Mission, POWERGRID employees on 10th February 2016 took a pledge to contribute minimum 55000 man-hours during the year 2016. The pledge was administered by I S Jha, CMD through video conferencing connecting all major establishments spread over the country. The POWERGRID SWACHHTA ABHIYAAN took off on 15th February, 2016 at Raipur (Chhattisgarh), where the employees cleaned the areas in proximity of POWERGRID office. More action was seen on 21st Feb at Jammu and Patna, where larger areas were cleaned and many truckloads of garbage was collected from the streets and drains. Similar activities have been scheduled in the coming weeks in other parts of the country. POWERGRID has been contributing towards clean India since long. The activities were mainly construction of toilets in schools, villages and towns and construction of drains and roads, plantation of trees, installation of hand pumps for providing clean water to the villagers. A waste paper recycling plant has also been installed in Gurgaon. During 2015, in addition to many other works, the company constructed about 9500 toilets in about 4200 schools in 23 districts spread over the States of Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh.