'Rural electrification lags due to delay in forest clearance'
Press Trust of India / New Delhi Jul 10, 2009, 15:55 IST
The government today said its flagship rural electrification scheme is lagging behind the target due to various reasons, including delayed forest clearance for executing the projects.
Implementation of the Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGVY) is slow in some states due to various reasons, include delay in getting forest clearance to execute the projects and delay in land acquisition for building sub-stations by the states, Minister of State for Power Bharatsinh Solanki said in a written reply in Lok Sabha.
Besides, delay in the receipt of detailed project reports from the companies executing the projects, available of less number of agencies for execution of turnkey contracts, shortage of line material and high prices are also some of the causes for the slow progress of the scheme, he added.
RGGVY was launched in 2005 with the aim of electrifying un-electrified villages and providing power connections to below poverty line (BPL) households.
The government has allocated a revised grant of Rs 35,000 crore in the Budget 2010.
It has also taken numerous steps to ramp up power generation capacity in the country, including monitoring of the on-going generation projects, import of coal to bridge the gap between the requirement and its availability from domestic sources among other things.
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