Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (PGCIL), a navratna PSU has achieved 85 per cent electrification in 12 districts of Orissa under the Centrally sponsored Rajeev Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGVY).
“We have achieved 80-85 per cent of the target under RGGVY in Orissa. PGCIL is executing 13 projects under the programme in 12 districts of the state,” R N Nayak, chairman and managing director of PGCIL told reporters here.
PGCIL has completed rural electrification work in 3816 un-electrified and de-electrified villages and in 9146 partially electrified villages. It has charged 324144 BPL (Below Poverty Line) households in the state. The districts where PGCIL was taking up RGGVY work include Balasore, Jajpur, Sonepur, Khurda, Kendrapara, Jagatsinghpur, Cuttack, Bhadrak, Mayurbhanj, Sundergarh, Nabarangpur and Malkangiri. Apart from rural electrification work, PGCIL was also executing grid substation work at Bhawanipatna, Nuapada, Dabugaon, Kuchinda, Boudh and Padmapur.
The state energy minister Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak on Saturday took a review meeting on implementation of RGGVY in PGCIL allotted districts. “Of the targeted 14,000 villages, more than 10,000 villages have been electrified while 50 per cent of the villages have been charged. PGCIL has assured us assured that they will electrify the targeted villages in scheduled time. Most of the problems related to RGGVY were discussed and we have arrived at solutions to them. The RGGVY work in the state had slowed because of delay in project execution by contractors and also for want of forest clearance,” Nayak said.