Electricity to all habitations by 2019-20 in Odisha: Minister

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government on Friday said it would provide electricity to all habitations by 2019-20 fiscal end.

Energy Minister Sushant Singh said the state government has provided electricity to all 47,677 census villages of the state.

However, there are around 16,000 habitations where the electricity will be provided by 2019-20, he added.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Friday took a review meeting of the Energy department here.

Singh said Odisha has become a power surplus state from energy-sufficient state.

“With an installed capacity of 5,914 MW including external allocations, we have successfully managed availability of power at any point of demand,” he added.

He said the peak demand of electricity will reach 4,700 MW by the end of 2018-19.

The Energy Department in proper coordination with Water Resources department has been working towards generating low-cost power and accordingly has invested Rs 607 crore for renovation, modernisation and upgradation of Burla, Balimela hydel power units.

He said that the government is also promoting green energy and has met power demand of around 245 MW from renewable energy resources between 2014 and 2018.

The transmission loss has been reduced from 3.79 percent to 3.40 percent in the last four years and the voltage profile has also improved across the state.