Progress of rural electrification found tardy

Itagar, Aug 18: In view of the August-end visit of Union power secretary and other high level central officials to the State, Power Minister Tamiyo Taga on Thursday held a meeting with power department officials to take stock of the activities undertaken in the State through various funding.

The meeting was attended by Power Commissioner Ashish Kundra, chief engineers Anong Perme (Transmission) and other senior officials of the department.

Kundra sought timely completion of the rural electrification scheme in view of the daily persol monitoring at the prime minister’s level through a specific app in the PMO and therefore requested the department to ensure early settlement of litigation cases in districts where majority of un-electrified villages lie. 

When the minister asked for a list of un-electrified villages, the power commissioner said some un-electrified villages to have been included for the scheme were missing from the list. The Centre, he said, had agreed to consider these missing villages through the contractors awarded projects in the nearest village(s) with an extension of the on-grid or off-grid contracts.

Superintendent engineer (Transmission) HR Bado gave a presentation on the comprehensive scheme being undertaken by PGCIL, which involves transmission lines of 33KV, 132KV and above capacity transmission lines with associated substations.

During the presentation it was stated that land for some substations were yet to be filised and the overall progress was only 25 per cent, an official communiqué said here on Friday.

The progress was seen as “very slow” and as such, it would not be possible to complete the projects as initially targeted for with 30 of the 48-month timeframe as per memorandum of agreement already over.

The idea of taking up the comprehensive scheme was to connect all the upcoming mega hydropower projects with the state transmission grid for its evacuation. The projects are to be taken up in a prioritised manner based on its immediate necessity vis-a-vis commissioning of the hydro projects.

The officials suggested some rectifications in the clauses of the MoA in the interest of the work in the long run and also highlighted that the department is lacking adequate and trained manpower to handle the existing as well as the extra high voltage systems that will be coming up under this scheme.

SE G Lingi, who is also the nodal officer of Deen Daya Upadhaya Gramin Jyoti Yoja (DDUGJY) dwelt on the schemes under which all the un-electrified villages are targeted to be electrified by December.  He also requested for appointment of a nodal officer from APEDA for better liaising and early execution of the project.

The on-grid projects are being undertaken through power department and APEDA through PDCL, a subsidiary company of REC for the off-grid projects. 

Representatives from the PDCL presented the details of projects being undertaken through off-grid means in which standalone solar roof tops are to be provided. As per the execution plan, all the material would be reaching the main warehouses and sites by September for which inspections have been almost completed. 

SE Rubu Tago gave a presentation on IPDS (integrated power development scheme) for strengthening of sub-transmission and distribution system and metering. The project has been awarded to the successful bidder recently after rejecting pleas of the aggrieved party by the Gauhati High Court, the communiqué added.