The Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday approved three projects worth Rs 81,000 crore to strengthen the power distribution and transmission in the urban and rural areas in the country.
These projects aim to provide round-the-clock electricity across the country by 2019.
The first project is the Power Development Scheme, which has been designed for urban areas and entails an expenditure of Rs 32,612 crore. The second project, the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana, will target rural areas and entails a total investment of Rs 43,033 crore.
The third project, the North Eastern Region Power System Improvement Project, aims to strengthen the intra-state transmission and distribution system in six north-east states - Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Tripura and Nagaland. The government has allocated Rs 5,111 crore for the project.
In its meeting, the Union Cabinet also approved signing and ratifying South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) pacts on railways, motor vehicles and energy during the forthcoming 18th SAARC summit, scheduled to be held in Nepal on November 26-27.
