TURKAULIA (East Champaran): Now, at least 400 villagers in East Champaran district, don’t have to travel long distances to fetch kerosene oil. “This is the first change we see. Now that power is being supplied through rice husks, lives of hundreds of villagers have completely changed in this remote area,” echoed over a dozen villagers here. East Champaran suffers from perennial power crisis, there’s power for barely five hours a day.
This place is best remembered for Gandhiji’s meetings beneath the famous “neem” tree at Turkaulia, barely nine km away from Motihari town on Areraj Road. It is ironical that a place of such historic importance should go without electricity. But now with seven hours of uninterrupted eco-friendly power supply, the lives of villagers have got completely transformed. The electrified villages look like an island amidst complete darkness of the surrounding villages.
Though there is no contribution of the Bihar government to this project, villagers are giving all the credit to the NDA government. Residents of obscure villages like Tirvolia, Malahi, Jagdishpur, Laukaha Pukama and Sangrampur are happy about the regular supply of power through rice husk.
These villages come under the reserved Harsiddhi assembly segment where sitting BJP MLA, Krishna Nandan Paswan, is trying his luck to retain this seat. “We are happy to get regular power supply in our village in the past one year,” said Paswan.
Altogether 10 rice husk plants (each plant having a capacity of 40 KV) have been installed in these villages. Each plant consumes around three quintals of rice husk for generating seven hours of power. “Each plant generates 40 KV
(nearly 3,200 watt),” said plant operator Dheeraj Kumar.
Kumar said normally a sum of Rs 300 is charged monthly for consuming 1,000 watt of power which includes use of CFL bulbs, TV and fans.
“As small businesses begin to develop because of reliable, consistent power, we’ll see our villages flourish,” said a villager, Ram Pukar Ram.
Ram and other villagers now use the “green power” for lights, fans, TVs and radios.
Villages that are supplied electricity to are usually at the bottom of the pyramid. These villages relied almost 100 percent on kerosene for household lighting while shopkeepers relied on diesel. The “green power” not only allows children to study at night, but also helps shop-keepers do business for longer hours. It has had health benefits also.
HPS has already successfully implemented rural electrification (RE) projects in 500 remote virgin villages of West Champaran. Husk Power System is an RE company’s unique biomass gasification technology which converts rice husks into electricity.
“We help cut down on 50 per cent of the customer’s expenditure on kerosene. This makes a huge difference. Further, the light they get from CFL bulbs (the only ones allowed by HPS) is much more bright,” said a technical expert.
There are 3,000-7,500 inhabitants (400-1,000 households) in each village. They are mainly farming communities specializing in rice or sugarcane production.
Read more: Husk lights up Champaran – The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/patna/Husk-lights-up-Champaran/articleshow/6806574.cms#ixzz13PSX74wL