Power Ministry to launch new GARV II app to track data about rural electrification

To ensure transparency in implementation of rural electrification programme, the Power Ministry will launch a new app, GARV-II, to provide real time data of all six lakh villages of the country.

“Earlier version of GARV mobile phone application used to provide data about rural electrification regarding 18,452 un-electrified villages. The new version GARV-II to be unveiled on Tuesday will provide real time data for all six lak villages in the country,” a senior official told.

The official further said, “Besides, the GARV-II will enable the commoners to participate in the development work and can give their input about rural electrification programme. Thus, the rural electrification work would be open to public scrutiny.”

Under this facility, village-wise; habitation-wise base line data on household electrification for all states provided by them has been incorporated. Further, village-wise works sanctioned under DeenDayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY) have also been mapped to monitor progress of works in each village.

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The progress on various works will be updated by the implementing agencies of the states on day to day basis, the official said that a dashboard for Managing Directors and Superintending Engineers of DISCOMs has been provided for online monitoring.

In GARV the data of only 18452 un-electrified villages has been mapped and 12-stage milestone based monitoring mechanism has been put in place.

Under GARV-II, the data in respect of all villages (about 6 Lakh) with more than 15 lakh habitations has been mapped for tracking progress on household electrification in each of the habitations of these villages.

Further, the status of release of funds to the states for projects sanctioned under DDUGJY has also been incorporated in GARV-II, he added.

GARV-II will have a citizen engagement window SAMVAD to enhance participation. They can contribute in the programme by providing their feedback and suggestions which shall be automatically forwarded to the concerned Managing Directors and Superintending Engineers of DISCOMs through SMS & Email on their dashboard.

The official said that the objective of GARV-II is to ensure electricity access to all households as government has already electrified over 11,000 villages out of 18,452 un-electrified villages.