India electrifies over 15,000 villages in last three years – MNRE

MNRE head, RK Singh says 15,183 Indian villages have been electrified, out of 18,452, as of November 30. Free electricity connections have also been granted to 44.41 lakh below poverty line (BPL) households under the government’s rural electrification scheme.

December 20, 2017 Sraisth

RK Singh, MNRE head: India electrifies 82% of unelectrified villages in the last three years.

Image: Press Information Bureau, GoI

Since April 1, 2015, 15,183 Indian villages have been electrified and 1,052 villages have been found uninhabited under the government’s rural electrification scheme, Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY), out of a total 18,452 un-electrified villages in the country, says Raj Kumar Singh, Minister of State for Power and New & Renewable Energy (MoP; MNRE).

The remaining un-electrified villages are set to be electrified by May 1, 2018, he adds as part of a written reply to a question posed in Rajya Sabha, the upper assembly of the parliament of India.

Based on the data collected from States/Union Territories (UT), Singh says that 14,528 villages have been electrified during the past three financial years.

A subsidy of INR 158.4 billion (US$2.47 billion) and free electricity connections to 4,441 thousand BPL households have also been granted under the DDUGJY scheme in this time.

Electricity generation and its distribution to consumers, including poor villagers, is primarily the responsibility of the respective State Government/ Distribution utility. In several states, such as Rajasthan, Punjab, Odisha, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, electricity supply to BPL consumers is at comparatively lower tariff, Singh continues.

With the overall aim of electrifying every village in India, the Indian Government had launched the Saubhagya- Power for all scheme this year. It released INR 16,320 crore ($2.45 billion) for the scheme, which also includes several solar-based installations across villages.

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