Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGVY)

Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGVY) was launched in April 2005 by merging all ongoing schemes. Under the programme 90 per cent grant is provided by Government of India and 10 per cent as loan by Rural Electrification Corporation Limited (REC) to the State Governments. REC is the nodal agency for the programme. This programme has been brought under the ambit of Bharat Nirman.

The RGGVY Aims:

• Electrifying all villages and habitations as per new definition
• Providing access to electricity to all rural households
• Providing electricity Connection to Below Poverty Line (BPL) families free of charge

Infrastructure under RGGVY:

• Rural Electricity Distribution Backbone (REDB) with 33/11 KV (or 66/11 KV) sub-station of adequate capacity in blocks where these do not exist.
• Village Electrification Infrastructure (VEI) with provision of distribution transformer of appropriate capacity in villages/habitations.
• Decentralized Distributed Generation (DDG) Systems based on conventional & non conventional energy sources where grid supply is not feasible or cost-effective.

Implementation Methodology and conditions under RGGVY:

• Preparation of District based detailed project reports for execution on turnkey basis.
• Involvement of central public sector undertakings of power ministry in implementation of some projects
• Certification of electrified village by the concerned Gram Panchayat
• Deployment of franchisee for the management of rural distribution for better consumer service and reduction in losses
• Undertaking by States for supply of electricity with minimum daily supply of 6- 8 hours of electricity in the RGGVY network
• Making provision of requisite revenue subsidy by the state
• Determination of Bulk Supply Tariff (BST) for franchisee in a manner that ensures commercial viability
• Three tier quality monitoring Mechanism for XI Plan Schemes made mandatory
• Web based monitoring of progress
• Release of funds linked to achievement of pre-determined milestones
• Electronic transfer of funds right up to the contractor level
• Notification of Rural Electrification Plans by the state governments.

Achievements

Under Phase-I of RGGVY, Ministry of Power has sanctioned 576 projects for 546 districts to electrify 1, 10,886 villages and to provide free electricity connections to 2.29 Crore BPL rural households. As on 31st December, 2012, works in 1, 06,335 villages have been completed and 204.47 lakh free electricity connections have been released to BPL households.

72 projects under Phase-II covering electrification of 1909 un-electrified villages, 46606 un-electrified habitations, 53,505 partially electrified villages, 25,947 partially electrified habitations and release of free electricity connections to 45,59,141 BPL households have also been sanctioned with an outlay of Rs 7964.32 crore

The Bharat Nirman target for RGGVY was to electrify 1 lakh villages and to provide free electricity connections to 175 lakh BPL households by March 2012 which was achieved by 31st December, 2011.