REC will release Rs 500 cr to PCL

THE RURAL Electrification Corporation (REC), a Government of India enterprise, will release the second installment of Rs 500 crore to the UP Power Corporation Ltd (UPPCL) next week for executing the rural electrification work under the Rajiv Gandhi Rural Electrification Programme.

THE RURAL Electrification Corporation (REC), a Government of India enterprise, will release the second installment of Rs 500 crore to the UP Power Corporation Ltd (UPPCL) next week for executing the rural electrification work under the Rajiv Gandhi Rural Electrification Programme.

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The REC took this decision after it satisfied itself regarding the utilisation of the first installment of Rs 639 crore released in March last year. The UPPCL has, however been, given a proforma to be filled and sent to it before the funds were released.

The REC had called a meeting of UPPCL officials in New Delhi on Thursday to review the work progress against the targets given to it. The States of West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand and Rajasthan also participated in the meeting.

The UPPCL presented the REC a list of 1027 villages, which it electrified during the last one year. At the meeting, UPPCL assured the REC that it would electrify 7800 more villages by March this year. It means it would have to electrify more than 2000 villages every month, which certainly an uphill task going by the slow progress of the work at present.

The REC also informed the UPPCL that it had now created a website and asked it to send a fortnightly report on progress of village electrification on the website regularly.

The details about the new villages that are electrified every fortnight should be coloured, the REC told.