By IANS
Raipur : About 97 percent villages of the state have access to either thermal, hydro or solar energy, chairman of the Chhattisgarh State Electricity Board (CSEB) said here Thursday.
Addressing a conference on `Power Vision – Opportunity Chhattisgarh’, CSEB chairman Rajib Ranjan said: “There are a total of 19,744 villages in Chhattisgarh as per the 2001 census, and except about 700 villages, all have power facility.”
“These 700-odd forested villages are located in extreme interiors and the CSEB has planned to light up all these villages by 2012 with the help of National Hydroelectric Power Corp, Power Grid Corp of India Ltd and National Thermal Power Corp, besides Chhattisgarh State Renewable Energy Development Agency,” Ranjan stated.
The government officials revealed at the conference that the coal-rich Chhattisgarh that has come into existence in November 2000 has so far inked deals with dozens of public and private power firms for setting up plants for producing 40,000 MW electricity by 2012 at an investment of about Rs.1.84 trillion ($46 billion).
The day-long conference was organised by a media house in association with the Chhattisgarh government.