Imphal, May 7(EMN): Manipur’s 85 un-electrified villages out of the country’s 4141 un-electrified villages whose residents reportedly do not have the opportunity to charge their mobile phones in the village, will be electrified by December next year.
This was disclosed by Manipur power minister Thongam Bishwajit after attending two-day State Power Ministers’ Conference in New Delhi from May 4-5.
Minister Biswajit Singh along with state Chief Secretary Oinam Nabakishore Singh attended were also present and Union Minister of power Piyush Goyal chaired the conference which reviewed the work done in the sectors of power, coal, renewable energy and mining by state governments/ Union Territories in last six months.
Minister Biswajit said that the conference intended to forge new policies for achieving the goal of providing 24x7 quality and affordable power for all in the stipulated time, upholding Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi’s vision of ‘New India’.
He said that 70 per cent subsidy is available for Solar Photovoltaic lights as per the guidelines of Ministry of New and Renewable Energy with a view to promoting solar energy projects in the state.
Stating that the Central authority has agreed to open a MegaSolar Park in Manipur, he appealed to the public to opt for grid- connected rooftop solar panels/power plant which would be benefited within 70 per cent subsidy and the surplus power would also be sold out.
Expressing that the mining resources available in Manipur were not yet explored properly and it was the time to explore it, he said, “Solar Park is a concentrated zone of development of solar power generation projects and provides developers an area that is well characterised with proper infrastructure and access to amenities and where the risk of the projects can be minimised.”
According to officials of Manipur State Power Distribution Corporation Limited, the then power starved state has been witnessing tremendous improvement in power supply and its distribution despite the report of lack of manpower after the introduction of pre-paid power supply five years ago. Residents in Imphal who buy pre-paid cards worth between Rs 500 and Rs 7,000 like mobile recharge cards, are experiencing 24X7 uninterrupted power supplies. Manipur’s peak requirement of power was about 170 MW against the availability of 30 MW to 90 MW. The State gets about 70 per cent of its power from the Central sector hydro-power stations in the region while the balance comes from thermal-based plants.
