By IANS
New Delhi : At least 56 percent of the 638,365 villages in India are yet to get electric connection but Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde Thursday said the gap would be bridged by 2012.
“As per an earlier plan we had set a target of electrifying 120,000 villages by 2009 and now we have decided that all villages in India will get electricity by 2012,” Shinde said.
“Since the second half of 2005, our ministry has provided light to 40,000 villages under the Rajiv Gandhi Village Electrification Programme and another 4,000 remote villages were provided new and renewable energy,” the minister said in a National Conference on Renewable Energy here.
All households of these targeted villages will get electric connection but they have to pay a nominal user charge.
Shinde confessed that during the 10th Five-Year Plan, India failed add required power generation capacity but promised that during the next one year they will “increase power generation between 9.5 percent and 11.5 percent per annum”.
“The entire Himalayan range has a huge potential for energy generation,” the minister said, adding the country has tapped only 30,000 MW of electricity as against it potential of 120,000 MW hydropower.
“We are also providing assistance to the new and renewable energy sector and expect that it will play a large role in places, which lack transport and communication facility. These remote villages can be benefited by energy created through sunlight, wind, bio-fuel and bio gas,” Shinde said.
Speaking on the occasion, Minister for New and Renewable Energy Vilas Muttemwar said that India’s energy demand would increase six fold compared the present generation capacity of 130,000 MW.
“Thus the challenge of providing energy at the projected level and that too in a cleaner manner is indeed enormous. Five ministries – power, petroleum and natural gas, atomic energy and new and renewable energy – share this huge responsibility along with states,” Muttemwar said.
The minister said his ministry was gearing up to face the challenge.
Currently, around 7.7 percent of India’s total energy generation comes from renewable sources like sunlight and wind. India produces 11,000 MW of power from renewable sources and the target is to add 14,000 MW of power during the 11th Five-Year Plan.