Increase in NTL due to Saubhagya Yojana Increase in
night time light, it begs the question whether the electrification of about three crore homes in India since 2017 under the Saubhagya Yojana and the construction of about 50,000 km of national highways since 2014 has helped India in the last decade. contributed to the rise of night time lights in In the report of NRSC, scientists have done an in-depth study regarding the changes in light at the national level and district level from the year 2012 to 2021.
Rapid increase in Bihar
According to the NTL Atlas released by ISRO’s National Remote Sensing Center (NRSC), some states have seen an increase of more than 400 percent in night time light in the last decade. Significant increase in night time light was recorded in major states. increased from 17.53% in 2012 in Bihar (8.36% to 47.97%), Uttar Pradesh (26.96% to 43.5%), Gujarat (20.69% to 32.68%), Madhya Pradesh (8.99% to 14.95%), Manipur, Kerala and Ladakh In 2021 it became 22.96%.
Effects of the plans?
The Modi government launched the Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana – ‘Saubhagya’ in October 2017, with the aim of providing electricity connections to all unelectrified households in rural areas and all poor households in urban areas. Since the launch of the Saubhagya scheme, all the households in the country have been electrified by the states by March 31, 2021, with 2.8 crore households electrified.
At the same time, the record construction of national highways in the country from the year 2014-15 can be another reason for India’s high shine. India now has the second largest highway network in the world with a total of 63.73 lakh kms. While the total National Highway length in India was 97,830 km in 2014-15, it is currently around 1.45 lakh km, with highways now being built at about 29 km per day. Data shows that in the year 2014 this speed was 12 km/day.