New Indian express reports that all villages in Orissa will be lighted up by 2009.

Excerpts of the report are as follows:

By 2008-end, all the villages in Orissa would be provided with electricity, said Union Minister of State for Rural Development Chandrasekhar Sahu.

He was launching the Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGVY) for Ganjam and Gajapati districts here on Thursday. He said the implementation of RGGVY in the State had been entrusted to three organisations which would supply power to every village unconditionally.

Earlier, power was supplied to the villages with more than 300 households, but the Union Government under RGGVY has decided to supply power to all the villages irrespective of number of families, he added. While the Power Grid has been entrusted with electrifying 12 districts, NTPC will electrify an equal number of districts.

The electrification of the rest six has been entrusted to NHPC, he said and added all the below poverty line families would be supplied electricity free of cost. He said the Centre is providing 90 per cent capital subsidy and the rest 10 per cent in terms of soft loan to the State Government for implementation of the programme. The Minister said 3,162 villages in Ganjam and 1,512 villages in Gajapati would get power by 2008.

D.K.Roy, Orissa in-charge of NHPC, said his organisation has been given the task of electrifying Ganjam, Gajapati, Boudh, Puri, Rayagada and Kandhamal districts. In the six districts 4,91,520 BPL families would be provided with power at an estimated cost of Rs 660.18 crore.

He said the electrification drive would be in two packages. In the first package, 55,000 BPL families in Ganjam would be supplied power at an estimated cost of Rs Rs 52.17 crore and in the second package another 57,263 BPL families would get power at an estimated cost of Rs 46.56 crores.”