Chhattisgarh village chooses bio-fuel

Electricity to be generated to light up the area.

Tucked away unobtrusively at the heart of tribal land, Bairakh village in Chhattisgarh will soon shine brighter across the country as it is all set to become the first village in India to get power through bio-fuel.

"The trial of empowering the village with bio-fuel generated electricity has started on December 16 and it will be fully operation from December 26," chief executive officer of Chhattisgarh bio-fuel development authority Sanjay Shukla told Business Standard.

The village""located in the home district of Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh in Kawardha, about 200 km north west of state capital""houses more than a 1000 tribals. Even after six decades of country's Independence, the village was deprived of power as the power grid could not reach upto the village.

The Bangalore-based Winrock International India, a Non-Government Organisation (NGO) Bangalore, started working on the project after getting sanction from the Ministry for Renewable Energy in 2004.

The survey was conducted in two months to draw the plan, which was completed successfully within 2 years.

According to project officials, about 60,000 saplings of jatropha were given to the villagers to plant on the peripherals of agriculture land.

The plants started bearing bio-fuel seeds.

The seeds were taken from the villagers on the condition of providing power to them.

The village was divided in three clusters and the diesel generators with 6.5 HP capacity were installed in each clusters.

The poles erection, careworn the electricity lines and house cabling were done free of cost by the NGO.

Shukla said that the plant had been set up in the village and now bio-seeds would be directly used for generating power.

The authority and the NGO had conducted technical tests on the engines to ascertain whether the fuel was technically feasible.

The report was satisfactory, Shukla added.

However, a village energy committee has been constituted to maintain the plant.

The committee members will be given the training to maintain it, Shukla said.

He added that the cost of the bio-seeds would be borne by the villagers while the authority and the NGO would look after the mechanical part.

Shukla added that power generated from the bio-fuel could also be used for running irrigation pumps.

The NGO has identified 40,000 villages across the country, which could be electrified through renewable sources of energy.

According to the officials of the company, it is at present working on similar 4 projects-- two in Hyderabad and one each in Kurnool and Anantpuram in Andhra Pradesh.