India eyes rural electrification by 2012

NEW DELHI, March 6 (UPI) -- India says it will be able to provide electricity to every village in the country by 2012.

Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde said out of a total of 593,732 villages, 487,351 villages were electrified, leaving 106,381 unelectrified villages up to Dec. 31, 2007.

Quoting the figures of the central electricity authority, Shinde said that to meet the growing power need, capacity addition of 78,578 MW, comprising 58,571 MW thermal, 16,627 MW hydro and 3,380 MW nuclear, was planned during the 11th five-year plan.

"In addition to above capacity addition planned from conventional sources, a capacity addition of 14,000 MW from renewable sources, and 12,000 MW surplus power from captive plants is also expected during the 11th plan period," he said.