A daring dream

Electrification opens up a world of opportunities. It empowers citizens and transforms their quality of lives. Through ensuring extended working hours for small and emerging businesses; improved health conditions; learning opportunities for children across geographic zones; and enhanced security solutions for communities in both urban and rural areas – among a host of other unprecedented possibilities — electrification brings with it a renewed hope for a brighter and more sustainable future.

While completing the daunting task of village electrification, the Government of India converged its focus on Universal Household Electrification throughout the country. The Prime Minister launched the Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana (Saubhagya) scheme — calling upon all the stakeholders to channelise their energies towards electrification of each and every household in the country within a challenging time frame of 18 months. The scheme had a total outlay of Rs 16,320 crore. SAUBHAGYA is indeed the story of a nation's journey — a journey that transformed the lives of millions of Indians. It was a challenge of epic proportions, which was achieved by a nation in just a few months — bringing to life the world's largest household electrification drive.

Journey

An achievement of such a magnitude could not have been possible without the support and relentless effort of a team that worked seamlessly as a cohesive unit. From the onset, we were faced with the challenge of identifying un-electrified households within the country. We had to have a pragmatic approach. We used an over-150-year-old backbone of our country's communication network — the Department of Posts. A survey was conducted through them for firming up the number of un-electrified households. 'Sankhya' — a Web Portal and Mobile App — was specifically developed for this survey for real-time analysis, and for formulating a prudent strategy.

Implementation of SAUBHAGYA in itself was a remarkable success story of cooperative federalism, where both the Central and state governments worked with seamless coordination for timely achievement of targets. Fifty-six DISCOMs worked tirelessly across the length and breadth of the nation to ensure electricity connections to every willing household. Saubhagya camps were organised at the village level to reach out to the beneficiaries, and to facilitate on-the-spot electricity connections – ensuring that no household was left out. A special fleet of 'Saubhagya Raths' was flagged off across various states in the country to create awareness among the people and to also identify every household without electricity that may have failed to register under the scheme initially. A control room that worked 24x7 was set up to assist the beneficiaries on all scheme-related queries, address their grievances and also provide electricity connections with the support of DISCOM for speedy resolution. In locations where the solutions were not techno-economically viable due to scattered households, standalone solar PV-based systems were installed. Our efforts translated into connecting millions to the mainstream development pipeline of our country and energising millions of smiles.

As I flip through the pages of history, 1879 was the year when light bulbs were used to demonstrate electricity on the streets of Calcutta (now Kolkata) and, on March 31, 2019, India achieved universal electrification – making us more equipped to leapfrog into a new phase of exponential development.

Road to quality power

After the electrification of 2.82 crore willing households, we are now working towards providing a reliable, 24x7 power supply in urban and rural India. An uninterrupted supply of electricity to every Indian household would mean improved access to all necessities. This will bring a major transformation, especially in rural areas as more and more citizens will be able to utilise new and improved agriculture techniques, agro-machinery, latest technologies etc., leading to a significant increase in agricultural production and, thereby, improved economic growth. Reliable power will also bring with it ample opportunities in various small-scale industries, with the setting up of new businesses and facilitating socio-economic growth and development. As India steps into a new era of progress, not a single citizen shall be left behind as we achieve our goal of 'power for all'.

The writer is an IAS officer currently holding the position of Executive Director in REC Limited. Views expressed are personal