Union Government approved launch of Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana

Union Government on 20 November 2014 approved launch of Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DUGJY) to provide access of electricity to rural households across the country. A decision in this regard was taken at the Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi.

The Union Cabinet also decided to merge the ongoing Rajiv Gandhi Gramin Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGVY) with DUGJY scheme.

Components of the Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY) includes
• To separate agriculture and non agriculture feeders facilitating judicious rostering of supply to agricultural and non-agricultural consumers in rural areas
• Strengthening and augmentation of sub transmission and distribution infrastructure in rural areas, including metering of distribution transformers/feeders/consumers

The two components of the scheme will be implemented at an estimated cost of 43033 crore rupees which includes required budgetary support of 33453 crore rupees from Union Government over the entire implementation period.

Apart from this, the balance work related to rural electrification as per CCEA’s approval of August 2013 with the norms of the ongoing scheme of RGGVY in the 12th and 13th plans will be subsumed in DDUGJY as a distinct component for rural electrification. For this purpose the CCEA has already approved the scheme cost of 39275 crore rupees including budgetary support of 35447 crore rupees.

This outlay will be carried forward to the new scheme of DDUGJY in addition to the outlay of 43033 crore rupees.

The scheme would help in
• Improvement in hours of power supply in rural areas
• Reduction in peak load
• Improvement in billed energy based on metered consumption and
• Providing access to electricity to rural households

As per the cabinet decision, the process of sanction of projects will commence immediately and for execution, the projects will be awarded by States Discoms/Power Departments. The projects shall be completed within 24 months from date of award.

Apart from this, the Cabinet also approved a North Eastern Region Power System Improvement Project for six north eastern states for strengthening of the Intra-State Transmission and Distribution System. These states are Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Tnpura and Nagaland.

The project will be implemented at an estimated cost of about 5111 crore rupees. The project is a major step towards meeting the national objective of Power to All. It will also increase the per capita power consumption in these States.