In Maharashtra dark zone, village lights up

A 15-kilowatt hydel power project built on Udhai’s Bardhariya waterfall has meant that since January 2003, every single house scattered in the 3-km radius of Bilgaon can flick on a light at night for the first time ever.

Bilgaon’s move to electricity was inspired by a mini hydel power project set up in neighbouring Dhomkhedi, a village on the Maharashtra-Madhya Pardesh border, now submerged by the contentious Sardar Sarovar dam.

‘‘Bilgaon’s villagers would visit Dhomkhedi,’’ says Shyam Patil, an IIT alumni and engineering professor in the neighbouring district of Dhule who helped guide Bilgaon’s effort. ‘‘They asked whether that project could be replicated.’’

Today, Natwar Pawara (24), one of the Bilgaon power plant’s two operators, proudly shows the efforts that flowed from that initial query.

A cheque dam built across the Udhai river, is teamed with a channel on the right bank that channelises the water into a 30,000-litre reservoir.

From here the water gushes down a giant pipe and into the generation room where a turbine pumps it generating 15 kilowatts of power every day.

This electricity is carried through a network of bamboo and wooden poles that crisscross the hills of Bilgaon, electric wiring leading into every single house. While Bangalore’s Indian Institute of Science designed the turbine, Kerala’s Peoples School of Energy drew up the blueprint, and AID funded the Rs 11 lakh project.

‘‘This doesn’t include the cost of labour, which the villagers volunteered entirely over nine months,’’ informs Natwar, over the turbine’s deep rumble in the generation room. He regulates the generation of electricity during a night shift for a Rs 400 monthly salary.

‘‘Our students can study in light now. We even show them a weekly movie,’’ say school officials of the local ashramshala.

Explaining how even the state’s occasional intervention at providing power has been marked by carelessness, they show a malfunctioning solar plate distributed by officials three years back under the Rajiv Gandhi Akshay Urja Project. ‘‘Its batteries are no longer manufactured and it’s practically useless.’’

Seconds primary teacher Vijay Singh Pawara, ‘‘I stay in Dadgaon (over 10 km away) where MSEB (Maharashtra State Electricity Board) supply goes and comes at will. And there is never an official around to answer our questions!’’ In contrast, Bilgaon’s micro-hydel project is completely under the villagers control, besides making economic sense. Pre-hydel project, a lantern’s light came expensive with each household using Rs 150 to 200 on rock oil, its availability erratic because of a shoddy Public Distribution System.

‘‘Now each home’s electricity bill per month works out to 20 to 30 rupees,’’ says gram panchayat member Ajit Pawara, ‘‘and the supply is uninterrupted.’’ The money goes towards operators’ salaries and maintenance of the plant.

Two years on the project’s also slowly jostling the village’s imagination towards its other potentials. ‘‘A flour grinding machine can be easily be attached to the turbine. Excess power could be used to irrigate low-lying land surrounding the project,’’ says Patil. However, the villagers, having never experienced electricity earlier are working through these issues slowly.

‘‘Bilgaon’s hydel power project rests on simple technology and can be easily replicated in several surrounding sites. ’’ says Anil Kumar, PSE engineer who designed the project. ‘‘It’s the best model for such villages whose remote location make them uneconomical consumers for the state.’’

But the initial establishment cost, from Rs 10 to 15 lakh is prohibitively expensive for Nandurbar’s rural communities, largely subsistence farmers. In November 2003, the government’s Maharashtra Energy Development Association proposed replicating the project in five surrounding villages; it’s yet to happen.

‘‘On 14 January 2003, the day the project was inaugurated, we marvelled at the result and danced and played dhols into the night’’, says Ajit Pawara. ‘‘Bilgaon now celebrates that date as Independence Day.’’

As night falls and Bilgaon is the sole village for miles around to light up, it’s easy to understand why.