SRINAGAR: The Jammu and Kashmir Union Territory has seen a modest improvement in its power supply situation, with the energy deficit decreasing from 1.4 per cent to 0.5 per cent over the past year, the Centre has informed.
However, despite these gains, the region continues to grapple with insufficient electrification and remains one of the lowest-ranked in terms of daily power supply across India.
Minister of State in the Ministry of Power, Shripad Naik in a reply to a question in Rajya Sabha a few days back has said that no new households had been electrified under the Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme (RDSS) as of July 2024, despite significant financial allocations for the initiative.
For Jammu & Kashmir, the RDSS has sanctioned the electrification of 1,936 additional households with a sanctioned outlay of Rs 14.96 crore and GBS of Rs 13.46 crore. As of July 18, 2024, none of these households have been electrified, the minister said
He said, “In the fiscal year 2023-24, Jammu and Kashmir’s energy requirement stood at 20,040 million units (MU), but only 19,763 MU were supplied, resulting in an energy deficit of 1.4 per cent. This shortfall was slightly reduced in the first quarter of 2024-25, covering the period from April to June 2024, where the energy requirement was 4,815 MU, and 4,791 MU were supplied, leaving a deficit of 0.5 per cent.”
The minister informed that during 2023-24, the rural areas received an average of 19.0 hours of power daily, while urban areas had 21.7 hours.
This marks a slight increase from the previous year (2022-23); rural areas had 17.7 hours, and urban areas had 22.5 hours of supply, he said.
However, compared to many other states, Jammu and Kashmir still ranks lower in terms of power availability, underscoring the need for continued investment and focus on enhancing the region’s energy infrastructure.(KNO)