AP State to spend 6,000 cr to provide energy efficient pump sets

Amaravati: The State government has taken another bold decision to spend Rs 6,000 crore to replace 15 lakh obsolete or old agricultural pump sets with energy efficient (EE) pump sets in a phased manner across the State as part of its farmers’ first policy.

The government will provide EE pump sets worth Rs 40,000 each at free of cost to farmers with a five years warranty. “The decision was taken as a Sankranti gift to farmers in the State. This is another major decision after loan waiver scheme to strengthen agriculture sector and benefit lakhs of farmers in the State,” Energy department officials said.

Under phase-1, AP discoms are planning to replace around 4 lakh old pump sets with energy efficient pump sets during 2018-19.  Farmers would be supplied BEE five-star rated energy efficient pump sets with mobile operated smart control panel with SIM card, which would achieve around 30% of energy savings.  

The pump set can send an automatic SMS to department concerned if it faces any technical problem. “Farmers can operate the pump sets even from their homes. This will ensure safety of farmers during nights to avoid snake bites and other dangerous incidents,” the department said.

During a discussion with the Energy department officials over the new scheme, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu said AP would be creating history as it will be the only State in the country which would be launching this prestigious EE pump set scheme. “Farmers will be provided the EE pump set worth Rs 40,000 without having to spend a single rupee from their pockets,” he said.

The government is also planning to provide new solar pump set connections to farmers on subsidy. While each pump set would cost Rs 3.12 lakh, the government will provide a subsidy of Rs 2.57 lakh. Farmer’s contribution would be Rs 55,000.

Besides, 9,62,712 agriculture pump sets have already been provided with High Voltage Distribution Systems (HVDS) with an investment of Rs 1 lakh on each, which ensures better voltages to avoid burning of motors and reduces interruptions in power supply. 

“The government is spending Rs 1.65 lakh for the benefit of each farmer in the power sector,” the department said. “Nothing is important for me than the welfare of farmers. My endeavor is to provide drinking water to every home and irrigation facility to every field. Since 2014, highly quality and reliable power is being provided to farmers which ultimately helped in achieving agricultural growth rate of 11.61% during 2016-17,” Naidu said.

Energy Minister Kala Venkatrao, Chief Secretary Dinesh kumar, special chief secretary Satish Chandra, principal secretaries G Sai Prasad, Ajay jain, K Vijayanand,  energy department officials K Ranganatham,  Dinesh Paruchuri, Umapathi, MM Nayak, H YDora and A Chandra Sekhar Reddy participated.