Availability of power in the country, including in the Northeast, has increased to an average of 21 hours per day in rural areas and 23 hours in urban areas, said Union Power R.K. Singh.
Singh said in the past three-four years, the power system in the Northeast region has developed tremendously and almost all states in the region have managed to revamp their electricity management.
“Today the power system in the Northeast is very different than what it was four years back,” he said.
Singh on Friday reviewed the power management at a meeting in Guwahati with the Power Ministers and officials of northeastern states.
He said that power is the key to development and a country can’t develop until and unless it has a seamless power supply.
“Power is the most crucial element when it comes to the establishment of industries which are the core factor in a nation’s progress,” added the minister.
The power sector has witnessed tremendous growth over the past few years in the areas of generation, transmission, and distributionand the objective is to give 24×7 power supply to every household in the rural and urban areas of the country and to make India a world leader in power production, he said.
Referring to the Revamped Distribution Scheme, Singh said that this would help to reduce the electricity losses and empower the consumers by way of prepaid Smart metering.
The Centre had earlier approved the Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme, a reforms-based and results-linked scheme with an outlay of Rs 3,03,758 crore over a period of five years from 2021-22 to 2025-26 with the objective to improve the quality, reliability and affordability of power supply to consumers through a financially sustainable and operationally efficient distribution sector.