UP primary schools to be electrified

The budget for the massive electrification project has already been sanctioned and the UP Power Corporation Ltd (UPPCL) has been directed to start the work, principal secretary (energy), V N Garg told Business Standard.

While the public-private partnership (PPP) model has worked wonders for the higher education sector in the state, the elementary and primary education needs sustained government support and funds to improve infrastructure and quality of education. Besides, higher learning can only be successful if the elementary and secondary education is in good shape.

"A field survey is already being carried out in this regard and the actual work will begin soon," said UPPCL Managing Director Avnish Awasthi.

About 144,000 schools are to be provided electricity connection in UP. Out of which 70,000 would be electrified in the first phase by March 2009. A large number of schools are located in the remote villages and hamlets, which do not have electricity connection and are not even connected with link roads.

"Electrification of such schools is a real challenge for the PCL, but we will eventually cover all the targeted schools," he added.

The PCL will also outsource certain tasks under the project like installation of about 30,000 transformers.

The schools would be identified by a committee headed by the respective district magistrate and also comprise the Basic Siksha Adhikari (BSA) and PCL Executive Engineer. Schools with a minimum of 100 students on its roll will be eligible for the project. All such schools would get one kilowatt (kw) connection.

All the villages identified as Ambedkar villages in 2008-09 would be electrified under the project. UP has a primary school in every 1.5 km, upper primary school in every 3 km and a secondary school in every 8 km in rural areas. Every block in the state also has a secondary school for girls.