Modi promises to light up all homes by December 2018 with Rs 16000-cr scheme

Saubhagya scheme aims at providing 'last mile electricity connectivity to all rural and urban households'

Setting the bar for higher government spending in the infrastructure sector, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday unveiled a flagship programme called “Saubhagya — Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana” to provide power to all households in the country by December 2018. The Rs 16,320-crore scheme aims at providing “last-mile electricity connectivity to all rural and urban households”. 

The announcement, made at the headquarters of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, would reinforce the ruling party’s electricity-for-all target, recently advanced from 2019 to 2018. “Of the 250 million houses that India has, more than 40 million of the houses are