Rajasthan Electronics and Instruments Limited (REIL) has landed a Rs. 300-crore order to power computers in about 10,000 panchayat samities and panchayats of Rajasthan as part of a gigantic task to introduce e-governance in rural areas.
The order is part-funded by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission, a major initiative in renewable energy conceived and promoted by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
The project is expected to be completed in 24 months, according to a release.
A mini ratna, REIL is a profit-making and dividend-paying joint venture public sector enterprise. While the Central Government holds 51 per cent equity in the company, the Rajasthan Government holds 49 per cent.
It was set up in 1981-82 with the objective of taking agri-electronics, solar energy and information technology to the rural population for their socio-economic development. The present annual turnover of the company is Rs. 100 crore. The contribution of solar energy division to the turnover is about Rs. 50 crore. REIL has been working in the area of solar energy for the last 25 years. It has deployed over one lakh rural home lighting systems, 20,000 village street lighting systems, solar power sources for electronic milk analysers at the village level, rural water pumping systems for both drinking and irrigation, solar power systems for satellite communication terminals for telecom and telemetry systems along GAIL pipelines, railway signalling systems, solar lighting systems for BSF outposts on the Indo-Pak Border in Rajasthan, 100 numbers of 1-10 kW standalone power plants, and 25 kW, 50 kW and 100 kW grid interactive power plants. REIL has also exported a range of rural end-use solar energy systems to Afghanistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka plus 500 kW of solar panels to Germany.
The recent Rs. 300-crore order must be viewed in the context of these achievements, the release said.
