MANIREDA lights up Pushing village
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, March 07, 2014:
A new dawn has come upon Pushing village, Ukhrul district with the successful installation of a micro hydel project of 5 KW by Manireda.
Although the village was electrified about 15 years back, the village was again plunged into darkness not long after as power supply to the village was stopped suddenly.
The micro hydel power project was formally commissioned today after being into trial run for 13 months.
Manireda took up the project under the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy at the cost of Rs 25,57,000 in association with the village energy committee in February 2012 and it was completed in January, 2013. Pushing village has around 180 households and houses located close to the project have already benefited from the project.
The remaining houses would be electrified in the second phase of the same project.
Each of the electrified house now enjoys the luxury of three CFL bulbs.
With the street lamps shining brightly during night, Pushing village has become an object of envy for the neighbouring villages.
45 year old Thingmila said that they were skeptic about the hydel project at first because of the previous experience when the Government connected power lines to the village only to be disconnected after sometime.
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"We were even doubtful whether electricity could be generated using water but today all our doubts have been proved wrong", Thingmila said.
With the bulbs shining brightly throughout the night, children can now read till late night and the number of households having TV sets have increased to six.
After hard day's toil in the fields, villagers can now rest in the evening watching television programmes.
Earlier pinewood splinters were the only means of lighting, she added.
Speaking at the inaugural function, Pushing village headman AS Yanglung said that the village was electrified some 15 years back but power supply was snapped after some time.
In his speech, Manireda director L Manglem called upon the villagers to plant trees near the project's water source so that the project lasts for a long period.
Notably, Pushing village is located 60 Kms South of Ukhrul district headquarters.
So far Manireda has implemented six hydel projects apart from installing solar lighting systems in 200 villages.