Gram Swaraj Abhiyan, EESL lights up lives by accelerating UJALA’s implementation among rural communities

The Government of India has launched Gram Swaraj Abhiyan, to promote social harmony and apprise rural communities of various government welfare schemes and initiatives. The campaign will be implemented between 14th April and 5th May 2018 in 16,000 villages across India.

As part of this initiative, 16000 Indian villages with a significantly large number of low income households will be able to buy LED bulbs for a special price of Rs. 50 under the Unnat Jyoti By Affordable LEDs for All (UJALA) programme.

The LED bulbs will equip homes with energy-efficient, cost-effective lighting, and higher lumen output than conventional incandescent bulbs. Initiating this programme, the bulbs will be distributed across villages along with flagging off the UJALA van.

The van will travel across villages spreading awareness about energy efficiency, energy conservation and distributing the LED bulbs. The LED bulbs to be distributed in this period will have the logo of Gram Swaraj Abhiyan on the boxes.

Launched by the Prime Minister of India, UJALA programme promotes energy conservation by increasing the use of energy-efficient LED lighting at residential level. Implementing the UJALA programme, Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), a Super ESCO under the administrative control of Ministry of Power, Government of India, has distributed superior quality LED bulbs to domestic consumers, enabling them to achieve energy saving of up to 90 percent, in comparison to incandescent bulbs.

The scheme has been readily adopted by all the states with the distribution of over 29 crore LED bulbs, reducing annual household electricity bills by about 15 percent, saving consumers over Rs. 16 billion every year.

Consumers have saved money, improved their quality of life, and contributed to India’s economic growth and prosperity. Government of India is committed to achieving its target of replacing India’s 77 crore inefficient bulbs with LEDs. This will result in reduction of 20,000 MW load, energy savings of 10,000 crore kWh, and greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction of 8 crore tonnes of CO2 every year. The country also stands to save Rs. 40,000 crore in consumer electricity bills.

EESL is committed to its vision of Enabling More – More Innovation, More Transformation and More Transparency. Besides UJALA, other programmes which are part of Gram Swaraj Abhiyan are the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (providing LPG connections to women from Below Poverty Line households); Saubhagya (for panIndia household electrification); Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (National Mission for Financial Inclusion to ensure access to financial services); Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana (life insurance); Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana (insurance for accidental death or disability); and Mission Indradhanush (immunisation against seven vaccine-preventable diseases for pregnant mothers and children under the age of two). This consolidated inter-ministerial approach promises to accelerate rural progress and establish these villages as development benchmarks for rural India.

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