All Bengal villages to be illuminated by March 2017, says Power Minister

All Bengal villages will have power by March 2017. In a reply to a question in Assembly on Wednesday, the state power minister Sovandeb Chattopadhyay said the work on 100 per cent electrification in the state would be complete by March 2017. 

He said the work of 100 per cent electrification in 11 districts was complete.  In these 11 districts, all places will now be illuminated after sunset.

Overall 98 per cent of the task is complete in the state. The remaining two per cent would also be completed by the end of the current financial year, Chattopadhyay said.

Trinamool Congress MLA Jayanta Naskar placed a question in the Assembly on Wednesday on whether there were any plans to ensure power supply to certain areas at Sunderbans in South 24-Parganas.

In his reply, the minister said that there were only 14 villages in Sunderbans, of which 7 were in Gosaba that were yet to get conventional energy supplies. The reason being there were some hazards caused due to the terrain of the area and those needed to be addressed to ensure power supply. However, the work to ensure power supply to those villages would be completed by March 2017.

In connection with the huge voltage fluctuations in some areas of Murshidabad, Chattopadhyay said the problem persists in some pockets. The power department has identified those areas and there is a plan to install another 125 new substations. He urged MLAs to inform him if they get a report of voltage drop in any place so that the state power department could take immediate steps to permanently solve the problems.

“Power cut has become a thing of the past since 2012-13,” Chattopadhyay said adding that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had dreamed of a state where there would be power supply to each and every household. Moreover, there should be no power cuts. The situation has improved a lot in the past five and half years and it would improve further.