Over 4.34 lakh farm pumps installed in state in four years

NAGPUR: State energy minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule on Sunday gave a presentation before chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on the achievements of the three state-run power companies in the past four years. Bawankule said the biggest achievement by the ministry was that installation of over

4.34 lakh farm pumps

in the state between November 2014 and August 2018.

He added that the project to provide power supply to farm pumps at high voltage was launched this year in May.

On the generator front, large number of thermal generation units were commissioned during this period at the

Chandrapur

, Koradi and Parli power plants. Several solar plants were also commissioned by Mahagenco. MSEDCL signed power purchase agreements (PPAs) with solar power producers at very cheap rates.

Another big achievement, the minister cited was that there was no load-shedding during this period in the state. There may have been some sparse power breakdowns in a handful of places but the MSEDCL was able to meet power shortfall whenever it arose.

According to the presentation, around 111 villages that had not been electrified in March 2017 were provided with power supply by March 2018. The central government had announced Saubhagya Yojana in October 2017. At that time, 7.58 lakh households did not have power supply. Within one year, 6.35 lakh households had been provided with a power connection. The remaining 1.23 lakh households will be provided connections by December this year.