World Bank offers to finance electricity distribution network in Bihar

Patna,(BiharTimes): As the Bihar government is planning to invest Rs 25,000 crore to revamp its electricity distribution network and seeking funds from various international financial institutions the World Bank has shown interest in financing it in this sector.

According to the World Bank Country Director Onno Ruhl, who is presently in the state, the Bank wants to help Bihar in social and infrastructure development schemes. Power sector is one such area.

He said that the Bank would like to provide financial assistance to state government in its ambitious plans to revamp its power distribution infrastructure.

Ruhl reiterated that the Union Ministry of Finance has asked the Bank to increase funding in the states like Bihar.

It needs to be recalled that the state government has taken up ambitious work to connect every village with electricity in next couple of years. In his Independence Day speech last year chief minister Nitish Kumar even publicly announced that he would not seek vote in 2015 if he fails to provide electricity to all the villages and towns of the state by then.

As Bihar has one of highest transmission and distribution losses in the country––45 per cent––the state government early this year signed an MoU with the PowerGrid Corporation to change its obsolete transmission network. It has also decided to revamp its distribution network.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is already engaged with the Bihar government and has taken up larger works related to generation and transmission of power.

As has been reported majority of the funds for this work would come from centrally sponsored schemes like Accelerated Power Development and Reforms Programme (APDRP), Backward Region Grant Funds (BRGF) and Rajeev Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGVY).