Government on Thursday approved Rs 43,033-crore rural electrification scheme Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana.

The scheme will replace the existing Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGVY).

“Cabinet today approved the launch of Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY) with components to separate agriculture and non-agriculture feeders facilitating judicious rostering of supply to agricultural and non-agricultural consumers in rural areas,” Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters here.

The scheme also includes strengthening and augmentation of sub transmission and distribution infrastructure in rural areas, including metering of distribution transformers and feeders.

The estimated cost of the scheme for above two components is Rs 43,033 crore which includes the requirement of budgetary support of Rs 33,453 crore from the government over the entire implementation period.

The balance work relating of the ongoing scheme of RGGVY till 2022 will get subsumed in this scheme as a distinct component for rural electrification. For this purpose, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has already approved the scheme cost of Rs 39,275 crore including budgetary support of Rs 35,447 crore.

This outlay will be carried forward to the new scheme of DDUGJY in addition to the outlay of Rs 43,033 crore.

The scheme is likely to work towards improvement in hours of power supply in rural areas, reduction in peak load, improvement in billed energy based on metered consumption and providing access to electricity to rural households.

The process of sanction of projects shall commence immediately.

After sanction of projects, contracts for execution of projects will be awarded by states discoms or power departments. The projects shall be completed within 24 months from date of award.