Nitin Raut.
State Energy Minister Nitin Raut on Thursday directed Mahavitaran to come out with plans for electrification of remote and inaccessible tribal areas in Melaghat and Gadchiroli. The directives were issued at a videoconference meeting.
Mahavitaran has been tasked to identify and locate areas in tribal belts and remote parts of the state which have not been electrified due to geographical difficulties. And accordingly chalk out a detailed plan to execute 100 per cent electrification.
Acknowledging that there are some villages located in forest areas which could not be electrified due to lack of permission from the forest department for laying distribution network, the minister urged the principal energy secretary to hold a meeting with the forest department for early clearance.
During the review meet, various issues related to transformer failure and oil supply, construction of parallel electricity network with Samruddhi Expressway, underground cable network in coastal areas, upgrade of dashboard and maintaining proper ownership records of the civil assets owned by all the four power companies were discussed.
Mahavitaran was asked to expedite the process and release electric connections to the applicants from paid pending list and also to the beneficiaries of SC, ST and OBC schemes.
Strengthening distribution network in the peripheral areas of Nagpur city and replacement of faulty electricity meters with smart meters in Nagpur city also came up during the discussions.