Centre targets electrifying 7,000 villages by March

New Delhi, Feb 24: The central government has fixed a target of electrifying 7,000 un-electrified villages by the end of the current fiscal on March 31, Power Minister Piyush Goyal has said.

"The village electrification target for 2015-16 was 2,800 villages, which I set to 5,800. Now my officials told me that they would be able to electrify 7,000 villages by March end. I'm sure that we would be able to achieve this target," Goyal said at The Power Focus Summit here on Tuesday evening.

"The figure, as we speak, of villages that have already being electrified is 5,542 villages, that's one-third of the total. There are another 1,390 villages, where electrification work is done, they are under energization," the minister said.

"Officials have themselves fixed their target to electrify 7,000 villages by March end. I'm sure that we would be able to achieve this target", he added.

Referring to the Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana (UDAY), Goyal hoped that more states would join the discoms' debt restructuring scheme.

"The agreements signed with the states specify the timelines and the reduction in losses to be achieved. The central government will monitor their work very religiously and I am sure more states including Kerala and Karnataka will join UDAY."

Bihar became the sixth state to sign the Uday MoU here earlier this week.

IANS