Visakhapatnam: Nearly two lakh farmers across 13 districts in the state will be provided energy efficient agricultural pumpsets free of cost in fiscal 2016-17.

There are nearly 15 lakh agriculture workers including 2.5 lakh under Vizag-based Eastern Power Distribution Company of AP Limited (APEPDCL) and 12.5 lakh under Tirupati-based Southern Power Distribution Company of AP Limited (APSPDCL).

The state government wanted to distribute the pumps to the 2 lakh select farmers in all 13 districts under phase-1 of the Agriculture Side Management Programme (AgDSMP). The state energy department on Sunday instructed the heads of both APEPDCL and APSPDCL to come up with a proposal and road map of the AgDSMP within the next 15 days.

Each pump set costs Rs 50,000 and a beneficiary will have to give away his existing inefficient or obsolete pump sets to get the 5-star rated pump set from the government. The Centre will provide Rs 5,000 crore to the AP government to distribute the pump sets under the AgDSMP through New Delhi-based Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL).

Presently, a pilot programme is under implementation in Rajanagaram mandal of East Godavari under the APEPDCL wherein about 2,500 existing pump sets are being replaced by EESL at a cost of Rs 20 crore. "We have so far replaced nearly about 292 pumps under the pilot programme. We can get minimum 25% energy savings through the pump sets," said Ajay Jain, energy secretary for the AP state government. Ajay Jain said APSPDCL has nearly 12.5 agriculture pump sets, while the remaining 2.5 lakh pump sets fall under APEPDCL.



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