PM reviews progress of key infrastructure sectors

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National News

Aug 08, 2018

3:21PM

PM reviews progress of key infrastructure sectors

PIB

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has reviewed the progress of key infrastructure sectors of power, renewable energy, petroleum and natural gas, coal, and mining. The review meeting, which was held yesterday was attended by top officials from infrastructure-related Ministries, NITI Aayog and the PMO.

CEO NITI Aayog Amitabh Kant said during his presentation that the installed power generation capacity in India has risen to 344 GigaWatts. India's energy deficit, which stood at over four per cent in 2014, has shrunk to less than one per cent this year. The PMO in a release said, India now ranks 26th in the World Bank's Ease of Getting Electricity Index, up from 99th in 2014. The progress in household electrification under the SAUBHAGYA initiative was also reviewed.

In the new and renewable energy sector, cumulative installed capacity has nearly doubled from 35.5 GigaWatts in 2013-14, to about 70 GigaWatts in 2017-18. In solar energy, installed capacity has increased from 2.6 GigaWatts to 22 GigaWatts. Officials expressed confidence that India is on track to comfortably achieve the Prime Minister's target of 175 GigaWatts renewable energy capacity by 2022.

The Prime Minister urged the officials to work towards ensuring that the benefits from the increase in solar energy capacity, reach the farmers, through interventions such as solar pumps and user-friendly solar cooking solutions.

In the petroleum and natural gas sector, it was noted that targets set under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana will be comfortably achieved in the current financial year. In the coal sector, discussions focused on further augmentation of production capacity.