Virendra Singh Rawat / Lucknow
Uttar Pradesh government will incur an expenditure of nearly Rs 2,000 crore to electrify 37,000 hamlets in the state.
While more than 121,000 ‘majras’ (hamlets) have so been electrified, the work on the remaining nearly 37,000 hamlets is underway, according to UP energy minister A K Sharma.
In response to question raised during the Question Hour in the UP Vidhan Sabha (legislative assembly), Sharma said the state had in Oct 2022 apprised the Centre that the process of electrifying all the hamlets had begun.
He underlined the Yogi Adityanath government had shown readiness to provide basic facilities in the rural areas since there was a lot of unfinished work from the previous dispensation in UP.
Of the hamlets to be electrified, the Purvanchal (Eastern UP) region topped with 18,818 hamlets followed by more than 12,300 hamlets in Madhyanchal (Central UP), and more than 5,700 hamlets of Dakshinanchal (Western UP).
Meanwhile, UP power distribution companies (discoms) have estimated total revenue collection of more than Rs 92,000 crore for the next financial year 2023-24.
UP Power Corporation Limited (UPPCL) and the discoms have petitioned the UP Electricity Regulatory Commission (UPERC) to approve their annual revenue requirement (ARR) document and allow them to hike power tariffs.
Interestingly, the UP discoms had posted a deficit of about Rs 16,000 crore in 2020-21 alone, while the consolidated accumulated losses were to the tune of Rs 70,000 crore.
Poor revenue realisation, high line losses and cross subsidy to the priority sector consumers are a few factors, which are blamed for the sordid state of affairs of the UP power companies.
IIT Kanpur to groom military hardware industry
According to the fresh ARR proposal, the UP discoms have estimated line distribution losses of 14.9 percent and the revenue gap of Rs 9,140 crore in 2023-24.