Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyothi Yojana

The Indian Government has initiated a scheme “Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana” for village electrification and providing with electricity distribution infrastructure in the rural areas. Under this scheme, it covers works related to feeder separation, sub-transmission and distribution systems to facilitate sustainable commercial operations of electricity distribution. Let us look in detail about the Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyothi Yojana (DDUGJY) in this article. To know about the Restructured Accelerated Power Development & Reforms Program (R-APDRP)

Objectives

The projects under the Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyothi Yojana are formulated only for the rural areas with the below following objectives:

To provide electricity supply to all villages
Feeder separation to assure sufficient power to the farmers and regular supply to other consumers
To improve sub-transmission and distribution network with the quality check and reliability of the supply
The installation of meters to reduce the losses.
To ensure seamless auditing and accounting of energy at all levels in the distribution system.

Eligibility Criteria

All private sector Discoms and State Power Departments are the eligible entities for the financial assistance provided under the scheme.
In the case of the private sector, Discoms holds the responsibility for the distribution of electricity in rural areas, where the projects proposed under this scheme will be implemented through a respective State Government Agency. Under this scheme, the assets created will be owned by the State Government or State-owned companies. These assets will be given to the respective utility for their use during the license time period on mutually agreed norms.
The areas that are under franchisee would also be covered under this scheme subject to the compliance with the certain norms of their respective agreements.
The Rural Electric (RE) Cooperative Societies are also covered, but they would be required to submit Audited records annually regarding the utilization under the approved project through the State Cooperative Department and the respective Discom.
All the projects require to be recommended by the State Level Standing Committee.

Benefits of the Scheme

The following are the benefits from the Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyothi Yojana that are listed below:

This scheme covers all the villages and households with the power supply.
On implementation of this scheme, there will be a raise in the agriculture yield
The business of Small and household enterprises would also grow and that further leads to new avenues for employment opportunities.
There would be an improvement in the Health, Education, Banking sectors.
This scheme develops the accessibility to radio, telephone, television, internet and mobile etc.
There will be a betterment in social security due to the availability of electricity
The accessibility of electricity to schools, hospitals, panchayat and police stations etc.
The rural areas would get increased opportunities for comprehensive development.
The details of consumers viz, name and Aadhaar card number/contact number/bank account/driving license/voter identity etc., as available will be collected by the DISCOMs.
The defaulters whose electricity connections would be disconnected and not be given any benefit under this scheme. However, the utilities would view the settlement of previous dues and reconnection as per the norms.

Funding Pattern

The funding structure of Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyothi Yojana is tabulated as under:

Agency	Nature of support	Quantum of support
Agency	Nature of support	States under Special Category	Other than the Special Category States
Government of India	Grant	85%	60%
Discom Contribution	Own Fund	5%	10%
Loan (FIs/Banks)	Loan	10%	30%
The additional subsidy from the GOI on the achievement of the prescribed milestones	Grant	50% of the loan component (10%) that would be 5%	50% of the loan component (30%) that would be 15%
The maximum subsidy is given by the GOI (including additional grant on the achievement of the prescribed milestones)	Grant	90%	75%

Implementation of the Scheme

The projects would be implemented on a turn-key basis. The turnkey contract will be awarded by the respective utilities through e-tendering as per the prescribed in the Procurement Policy, Standard Bidding Document and Technical Specifications being circulated separately by the nodal agency. The projects have to be awarded within the time frame of 6 months of the communication of the support by the Monitoring Committee. In exceptional circumstances, the execution on a partial turnkey/departmental basis would be allowed with the approval from the Monitoring Committee.

Supporting/Enabling Activities

A stipulation of 0.5% of the total project cost has been kept for the enabling/supporting activities of the Ministry of Power relating to implementation of this scheme, such as capacity building, creating awareness through conducting seminars, workshops, interaction with the stakeholders, business publicity and promotion, monitoring of works, third party evaluation, evaluation studies, field inspections, training, study tours, special audits etc.

Release of Grant

The date of project completion within the execution period of 24 months from the award date in case of turnkey execution and it will be 30 months from the date of sanction communication in case of partial turnkey/departmental execution, or as prolonged by the Monitoring Committee to become eligible for the release of final grant of 10%. The expenditure as per the Project Completion Certificate or award cost or the cost confirmed by the Monitoring Committee whichever is lower would be considered as the final cost of the project for the release of the last installment of 10%, after adjusting the excess release made earlier (to limit the subsidy value to 60% of the completed project cost).