Chief Minister Oommen Chandy will formally declare the total electrification of five districts in north Kerala at the St. Sebastian's Church Hall at Koodaranji here on Saturday.
The declaration also marks the conclusion of the Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vydutikaran Yojana, a Union Power Ministry scheme, conceived as part of the National Common Minimum Programme, providing access to electricity to all rural households and electrification of all villages in the country.
Now as many as 43,000 households will get electricity connection free of cost from the project in the five districts. More connections will be given till the formal declaration.
The project involved the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) installing 11 KV lines for 755 km, 3-phase lines for 255 km and single-phase lines for 1,630 km, and installing 740 transformers on a turnkey basis in five districts.
The project with an estimate of Rs.1,14.5 crore was launched in March 2010.
The Rural Electrification Corporation is the nodal agency of the project. The Centre allocated 90 per cent of the project cost while the State government foots the rest.
Implementing agencyK.S. Suresh Babu, Deputy Chief Engineer, Electrical Circle, Kozhikode, said Kolkata-based Bentec Electricals and Electronics Limited was the implementing agency in Kozhikode, Kannur and Kasaragod while the KSEB was entrusted with the work in Malappuram district and New Delhi-based Aravali Infra Limited in Wayanad and Palakkad districts.
He said the KSEB had carried out a survey in the districts.
For families belonging to Below the Poverty Line the installation was free but the Above the Poverty Line have to remit fees for the cable linking the electric post to meter box in the house.
BeneficiariesThe majority of beneficiaries of the project are the households in the hilly regions of these districts.
Electrical cables had to be laid for a few kilometres to give connection to a small number of households, sources said
