1,704 hamlets to be electrified through non-conventional sources

Agartala, Nov 5 (UNI) The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has agreed to provide financial support to 8,719 remote villages of 10 states, including 1,704 hamlets in the Northeast in the current fiscal.

State Science and Technology Minister Joy Gobinda Debroy told UNI here today that the ministry will support to develop infrastructure for facilitating electrification through non-conventional sources of energy.

According to plan, renewable energy technologies used for this purpose include solar photovoltaic home-lighting systems and decentralised small hydro and biomass gasification systems.

Besides, 1,485 villages in Assam and 14 in Manipur, 205 villages of remote villages of Tripura will be electrified under the programme. It was estimated that around 31.7 billion units of electrical energy will be generated annually for feeding into the grid through 13,450 MW of power generation capacity from various renewable energy sources in the 10 states.

Mr Debroy attributed that under Remote Village Electrification (RVE) programme, proposals were received from the state governments, for financial support for creation of facilities for lighting/basic electricity through renewable energy sources in eligible remote un-electrified villages and hamlets including tribal villages.

Implementation of renewable energy programme is routinely monitored at different levels and will be carried out by the officers implementing the programme themselves, or, through other independent agencies, he added.

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