India on a massive power saving programme: Goyal

Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal on Saturday said India has embarked on a massive energy efficiency mission to save $6 billion per annum by switching over to LED bulbs by the end of 2018.

"When all the 71 crore (710 million) conventional bulbs are replaced by LED bulbs, it will result in a saving of 100 billion units of electricity," said Goyal at Harvard College India Initiative conference.

He said, until now, 4.59 crore LED bulbs have been distributed across the country under the Domestic Efficient Lighting Programme (DELP).

The central government set a target of distributing six crore LED bulbs through state run Energy Efficiency Services Ltd.

"We have been able to procure LED bulbs for about Rs.73 per piece as of June, down from Rs.310 in February 2014, a reduction of 76 percent," Goyal said.

Expressing his confidence on achieving rural electrification, Goyal said: "Prime minister (Narendra Modi) has given me a target of 1,000 days to reach electricity to 18,000 villages that are not electrified till now. But, I am confident that we will accomplish this mission within 730 days."

He said people can check the number of villages electrified in real time on the specially created app "Garv Grameen Vidyutikaran".