4 more states join UDAY; Goyal confident other to follow soon

Power Minister Piyush Goyal exuded confidence that all states will join 'UDAY' scheme for revival of debt-laden discoms after four more states, including Punjab and Jammu & Kashmir, joined the programme today.
"Congratulations to Himachal Pradesh on joining UDAY (Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana). We are confident of every single state joining UDAY," Goyal tweeted today.
The minister further said he met the heads of all the banks with exposure to DISCOMs and all banks are fully participating in UDAY.
According to the minister, UDAY is getting enthralling support from several states.
After Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, and Rajasthan, today Punjab, Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand have communicated their in-principle approval to Power Ministry for joining UDAY scheme, the minister informed through his tweets.

The scheme is optional and gets operationalised by signing a pact between states, state discoms and the Centre.
The central government's UDAY aims at reviving ailing state electricity boards and operational efficiencies of power distribution companies. It envisages on reducing interest burden, cost of power and AT&C losses.
Consequently, the discoms will become sustainable to provide adequate and reliable power enabling 24x7 power supply. The scheme provides that states would take over 75 per cent debt of discoms, as on September 30 in two years.