100% household electrification in JK soon: Comr Secy PDD

New Delhi : Jammu and Kashmir is all set to achieve the target of providing ‘Power for All’ with electrification of each and every household across the state soon.
This was stated by the Commissioner Secretary Power Development Department (PDD), Hirdesh Kumar, while speaking during the ‘Review Planning and Monitoring (RPM)’ meeting chaired by Union Minister of Power, R K Singh here in New Delhi.
The Union Minister congratulated the state for the commendable performance in executing various tasks in the power sector within the short span of time.
Commissioner PDD said cent percent household electrification has already been accomplished in six districts of Srinagar, Budgam, Pulwama, Jammu, Samba and Kathua under the ‘Saubhagya’ Scheme while the remaining 16 districts are at the final juncture of completion.
The massive objective to ensure electrification of all un-electrified households, which kicked off in October 2017 with the launch of ‘Saubhagya – Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojna’ in the State is very close to realization in merely twelve months period, he added.
Kumar said the department has succeeded in laying the necessary infrastructure for connecting all the leftover 102 villages across the State which were located in the remote areas.
“During the last month alone, the average rate of electrification of households reached 4695 households per day.” He further informed that “Various innovative initiatives have been taken to ensure that no household is left un-electrified. Special Mobile Application ‘UrjaVistaar’ was developed to carry out the survey of households requiring electricity. Electricity connections were provided to remote households on-spot through another Mobile Application ‘Gram Jyoti Doot’ developed for the purpose,” he said.
He said a special vehicle named ‘SaubhagyaRath’ has been moving even in the saturated areas as the last step to rule out the possibility of any household remaining un-electrified.
While speaking about the action plan, he said “We are focusing on the last phase providing electricity connections to the remaining few un-electrified households. This phase is also broken into several milestones and thorough strategy planning has been done to accomplish the target within the next few days.”
Commissioner PDD further informed that “Besides on-Grid connectivity, a total of 16443 households which are located in extremely difficult terrain/ remote connectivity will be provided electricity through off-grid solutions including Solar Standalone and DG sets till the time Grid connectivity reaches such households so as to ensure strict adherence to timelines.”
He added that consumer database has also increased considerably with the release of electricity connections under Saubhagya scheme. During the last one year of this intensive electrification drive, massive capacity addition has also been done at a very fast pace to accommodate the additional load on the system. The registration of electricity connections will greatly aid in the correct assessment of required infrastructure for the said consumers for proper implementation of the ongoing schemes like DDUGJY, PMDP, he informed.
The meeting was attended by Secretary, Union Ministry of Power, Ajay Kumar Bhalla, Joint Secretary, Union Ministry of Power, Dr. A. K. Verma, Principal Secretaries / Additional Chief Secretaries of various Power Departments of all States/ UTs, CMDs of PGCIL, NTPC, PFC, REC, other concerned.