Govt app to track electrification of remotest villages, says REC's Rajeev Sharma

The government has developed an application to monitor the process of electrification in rural areas to expedite the process of meeting the energy needs of the remotest parts of the country, Rajeev Sharma, CMD of Rural Electrification Corporation Ltd (REC), said in his address at the Business Today Best CEO awards on Friday.

REC, facilitating the availability of electricity in rural and semi-urban areas since 2005, has been able to cover 3,300 villages so far.

"We have covered the most distant and inaccessible areas across the country, including the remote villages in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Meghalaya and Arunachal. In many of these states we had to sent the equipment by air as there was no other means of transport," he said.

Sharma, heading the company since November 2011 and holding a masters degree in electrical engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, laid stress on power conservation and improving the power transmission and distribution network across rural areas.

REC, a listed public sector enterprise, had a net worth of Rs 24,857 crore at the close of financial year ended March 2015, and has been able to successfully drive financing for rural electrification projects all over the country.

Besides, it provides financial assistance to state electricity boards and state government departments to push electrification across the country.