Bengal best state in terms of power supply to households under Saubhagya: Sobhandeb

Kolkata: State Power and Non-Conventional Energy Sources minister Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay said on Tuesday that Union Power minister R K Singh has acknowledged that Bengal has ranked number one when it comes to successful supply of power to every single household under the Saubhagya scheme.

"Power minister R K Singh has informed me that Bengal has ranked as best among the states in supplying electricity to households. When our government came to power for the first time in 2011, there were 85 lakh houses that had electricity. We have taken this number to 1.85 crore," Chattopadhyay said, on the sidelines of a seminar on Surface Water in Rural Bengal organised by Sulabh International.

It may be mentioned that Bengal is among the fifteen states in the country that have achieved 100 percent saturation in household electrification under Saubhagya.

The states completing 100 percent household electrification by December 31 will receive additional grant of 15 percent of the project cost sanctioned under Saubhagya, besides the awards.

Chattopadhyay said that the state government is also taking steps for using solar energy and other non-conventional forms of energy for power.

"We are coming up with the 1,000 MW Turga pumped storage project on Ayodha Hills in Purulia and Bandhunala - another 900 MW pumped storage project, at the same place," he said.

The Bandhunala project is expected to be completed before the Turga project, even though the process for the latter had started earlier. "The Turga project is being done in collaboration with a Japanese company and it has taken two years in discussion. The Bandhunala project will be done under PPP mode by an Indian company, so we hope it will take less time," the minister added.

The state has completed 21 MW solar electrification in 1,200 schools and colleges and has set a target to light up another 1,000 institutions by solar power by the end of the current fiscal.