Lucknow, 30 Jul: As many as 12 power substations and transmission centers were inaugurated while foundation stone was laid for another five on the occasion of Electricity Festival and Energy Day held as part of the Ujjwal Bharat, Ujjwal Bhavishya, Power @ 2047 mission in the presence of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Saturday. The total cost of the projects is estimated at Rs 2723.20 crore.
Congratulating people on the occasion, CM Yogi said that under the visionary leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi Uttar Pradesh has made a big leap in power production and supply. He said that as many as 1.21 lakh villages, which remained without electricity since independence, have been electrified in the last five years while 1.43 crore free electricity connections have also been given to the needy people in the state of Uttar Pradesh under Saubhagya Yojana in the last five years.
Yogi said that during previous governments there were four ?VIP districts? in UP that received power while the rest 71 districts were denied electricity and the people there were left to struggle with darkness. ?But, today there are no VIP districts as every district is a VIP district. In the last five years people have been provided electricity without any discrimination. This is what we call democracy?, the CM pointed out.
According to CM Yogi, power supply is currently available for 23 to 24 hours in district headquarters, for 20-22 hours in tehsil headquarters and for 16 to 18 hours in villages. He added: ?Our aim in the next five years is to provide electricity to every household in the state to help achieve the goal of Ujjwal Bharat in the next 25 years as the country celebrates Amrit Mahotsava.?
CM Yogi also urged the Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation officials to strengthen the billing and connection system in order to make the Energy department self-reliant.
Speaking on the occasion, Energy Minister Arvind Kumar Sharma said what UP achieved in 60 years in terms of power generation and number of connections provided, the state did in just five years of CM Yogi. Sharma informed that since independence till the year 2017, the total power generation capacity of UP was 6000 MW while an additional 5200 MW is being produced in the state due the efforts of CM Yogi. Sharma also congratulated CM for reducing power tariff in the state.
Praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi for making India self-sufficient in electricity production, Sharma said that India was also exporting surplus power to Bangladesh, Nepal and Myanmar. He said that India has the biggest power grid in the world, thanks to PM?s ambitious One Nation One Grid project.
The newly inaugurated transmission and distribution sub-stations will directly benefit people of Rasra (Ballia), Babina (Jhansi), Malwan (Fatehpur), Ayodhya, Azizpur (Shahjahanpur), Dulhipar (Sant Kabirnagar), Mandhata (Pratapgarh), Bilochpura (Bagpat) ), Mirganj (Bareilly), Kailah (Chitrakoot) and Baghpat.
Foundation stone was laid for transmission and distribution substations of different capacities at Knowledge Park-5, Ecotech-8 & 10 and Jalpura, Greater Noida (Gautambudh Nagar), Shohratgarh (Siddharthnagar).
