Meghalaya along with Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Tripura will soon benefit from the proposed North Eastern Region Power System Improvement Project (NERPSIP) aimed at strengthening of intra-state transmission and distribution systems in electricity sector.
It may be noted that the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has on December 16 approved the revised cost estimate of NERPSIP at an estimated cost of Rs 6,700 crore.
The scheme is being implemented through Power Grid, a Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) under the Power Ministry in association with six beneficiary states namely.
The scheme is targeted to be commissioned by December 2021. After commissioning, the project will be owned and maintained by the respective power utilities of the six north-eastern states.
Implementation of this scheme will create a reliable power grid and improve connectivity to the upcoming load centers, and thus extend the benefits of the grid connected power to all categories of consumers of beneficiaries in these six states.
The scheme shall also increase the per capita power consumption of these states, and contribute to the total economic development of the North-East region.
The scheme was initially approved in December 2014 as a Central Sector Plan Scheme of the Power Ministry and is being funded with the assistance of World Bank fund and by the Government of India through the budget support of Power Ministry on 50:50 basis (World Bank and Government of India) except for the capacity building component for Rs 89 crore, which will be entirely funded by the Government of India.