All of Bihar’s 39,073 revenue villages have been electrified four days ahead of the 31 December deadline set by the state government, The Telegraph has reported.

According to the daily’s report, the state, with Centre’s assistance, electrified 2,790 villages in the last two years. At least 190 villages have been electrified through off-grid means, including solar power, owing to their location constraints.

A formal announcement of the completion of the electrification drive in the state will be made by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today (27 December) at a function.

Principal energy secretary Pratyaya Amrit has said that the state has now set the target to take power to all the tolas (habitations) of each village by May next year and all households by the end of 2018. At least 21,000 of the state’s 1.06 lakh tolas and 35 lakh households do not have power.

Earlier this month, Quality Council of India (QCI) - an autonomous body which provides accreditation services - ranked Bihar second in a survey of six states for work done to improve rural electrification infrastructure. Odisha was ranked first. Other states assessed were Assam, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.

At least 202 villages in the state were surveyed by QCI as part of the survey and physical verification of power distribution infrastructure such as transformers, and insulators was done. The agency also sought feedback from households regarding quality and reliability of power. Only 300 out of the 39,073 villages in the state had not been electrified when the survey was conducted.