The centre plans to scale up electrification of villages in the country to around 250 per day from 100-125 at present, a union minister said on Saturday."Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his Independence Day speech, said that around 18,500 villages will be electrified in 1,000 days. We are now confident of achieving the target in around 730 days," Minister of State for Power, Coal, New and Renewable Energy Piyush Goyal said.He was addressing the media after inaugurating a bio-CNG (compressed natural gas) plant of the Mahindra and Mahindra group at the Mahindra World City near here. The minister said 3,127 villages in very remote places will have to be provided off-the-grid power or from small power stations located in villages.
Goyal said he had requested Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to scrap the value added tax (VAT), road tax and vehicle registration fee for electric vehicles to encourage their use.He urged the Mahindra group to made the bio-CNG plant a modular one to reduce cost. The bio-CNG plant uses kitchen-generated waste in the Mahindra World City to generate biogas that is enriched to yield fuel-grade CNG. According to company executive director Pawan Goenka, the plant uses around 10 tonne of kitchen waste to produce biogas. The plant generates four tonne organic fertiliser as a byproduct.The technology demonstration plant can generate 1,000 m3 of raw biogas per day, which in turn yields 400 kg purified CNG-grade fuel that can power the group's vehicles here.