Friday, June 17, 2011

Micro hydel project brings smiles to Arghakhanchi villages

ARGHAKHANCHI - Sahbhana, a remote VDC in Arghakhanchi district that remained in darkness until recently, has been illuminated by a micro hydropower project.
Some 120 households of Wards No 1 and 2 have been enjoying electricity round the clock after electricity was generated from Badhahar Khola.
On the initiation of Roda Programme, Zonal Renewable Energy Service Center chipped in Rs 1000,000, local people contributed Rs 620,000, Sahbhana lent VDC 150,000,  local women’s  group gave Rs 141,500, community forest Rs 10,000 and villagers contributed labour worth Rs  360,000 to generate power from the local river.
The micro hydropower project is producing 8 kilowatt of electricity with the investment of Rs 2,285,680, said Usa Karki, district coordinator of Roda Programme.       
Villagers are all happy now as they can watch TV, listen radios and even run grinding mills. Light has powered students, who used to go to bed early, as they have started studying till late night, according to local people. The compulsion to cook meal in daytime has become a thing of past with villagers busy preparing meal once the dark falls and working till late night,  said Kamala Adhakari, a housewife.       
The trend of people’s migration to the plain areas having electricity facility has come down, said another local Dhundi Raj of Belbase, adding that villagers are enjoying 24-hour electricity at a time some parts in the country are facing load shedding.
Each household have to pay Rs 80 a month for the electricity facility, said Ugarshinga Shijapati, chairman of electricity consumers’ committee.

No comments:

Post a Comment