For hundreds of villages in the border areas of Arunachal Pradesh, sunset has long been synonymous with darkness. What made it seem darker was the sight of twinkling lights a few kilometres away, across the border in China. The state has decided to end this “divide”. It has readied what is being called the “Border Villages Illumination Programme” to develop infrastructure to match facilities on the Chinese side. The plan aims to bring minimum domestic lighting facility to 842 villages located on the country’s eastern-most frontier, using hydel and solar energy. The Rs 61-crore project envisages setting up of plants of capacity ranging from 10 KW to 200 KW as stand-alones or installation of Solar Home Light Systems. The home systems would be preferred in villages with no sources of water. Almost 45 per cent of Arunachal’s villages, home to over 31,000 households, are still without electricity. Though these villages are included in the Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana for electrification through extension of grid, state government officials admit the 2009 target would be hard to meet owing to a late start, fund constraints, and difficult site conditions. Talking about the Border Villages Illumination Programme, Arunachal Pradesh Secretary, Planning, Prashant Lokhande, says: “A detailed project report has been submitted to the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region. The project is aimed at taking hydel electricity to 3,351 households and solar energy to 9,267 households in the remotest border areas of the state.” Out of the 842 villages identified under the project, as many as 170 are not even connected by motorable roads. Independent hydel projects are planned for these villages.“Almost all the villages in Arunachal Pradesh are remote, inaccessible, isolated and scattered. To meet their minimum domestic lighting needs, that too in a short time, small hydel projects in isolated, stand-alone mode can be the solution. With proven technology record, these projects are not only easy to operate but also have low operating and maintenance costs and can be subsequently handed over to local residents for operations,” adds Lokhande.
