‘Only 4-5 VIP districts got power before March 2017’
LUCKNOW: Chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Saturday said the electricity supply situation had improved considerably since his government came to power in Uttar Pradesh in March 2017. Prior to that, the state reeled under load shedding and only four-five VIP districts got power, he added.
“Today, each district headquarters gets power supply for 22-24 hours every day, tehsillevel towns for 20-21 hours and rural areas for 17-18 hours,” he said.
“Our government is committed to providing 24x7 power to each and every corner of the state and efforts are being made in that direction accordingly,” he added.
The chief minister was speaking after dedicating 20 high-capacity transmission substations to the public and laying foundation stones of eight new transmission substations at a function at his official residence here. Union ministers Smriti Irani, Santosh Gangwar, VK Singh, Sanjeev Kumar Balyan as well as Bharatiya Janata Party MPs Mahesh Sharma and Maneka Gandhi, all representing UP, were also connected to the programme digitally.
The CM said the transmission substations he inaugurated and those for which he laid foundation stones were all part of steps to provide round-the-clock power to the state. He said his government had already given free power connections to 1.24 crore families and electrified 1.79 lakh hamlets.
He lauded the UP Power Corporation Ltd (UPPCL) for maintaining smooth power supply during the Covid-19 lockdown and completing the work on substations in a time-bound manner.
Earlier, UP energy minister Shrikant Sharma said the cost of substations inaugurated by the CM was around Rs 1,881 crore, while the proposed ones would entail an investment of another Rs 1,253 crore.