Incredible tale of how a Mon village became 'aatmanirbhar' by installing solar power

The remote Shinnyu village in Mon district of Nagaland recently became the first solar-powered village in the entire state as the district administration in collaboration with Global Himalayan Expedition (GHE) electrified the village using solar microgrids based electrification.

 

As part of the electrification drive, at least 60 households, the Church and the community hall were electrified using only solar microgrids.

 

Seeing the hardships faced by the people and communities without electricity, the district administration of Mon has taken up the initiative to solar electrify the villages.

 

As expected, it took a lot of community mobilization to make this long-cherished dream come true, with every villager chipping in with help. They were guided by engineers from Meghalaya, who were brought in especially to accomplish the task.

 

The experts, aided by locals, finished the entire project in a mere 4 days. Remarkable, isn't it?

 

 

Talking to Inside Northeast, Mon Deputy Commissioner Thavaseelan K said that the generation of solar power became necessary as the village is located far away from the district headquarter.

 

"It is 6 hours away from the nearest town, Tobu. It is 12 hours away from the district headquarters. As you can imagine, it is a very remote village. We are thankful to the Global Himalayan Expedition for stepping in and taking the initiative which, by the way, was their first in the state. We have a lot planned as far as electrifying the remoter regions in Nagaland and there are miles to go yet."

 

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Thavaseelan K said that the people of the village played a huge role in the successful installation of solar microgrids.

 

"They (the villagers helped in transporting the materials needed for the electrification from Tobu. Furthermore, some of them helped in setting up and finishing the job. Some people of the village have been trained to set up solar grids. When we take up another project, we can probably hire some of the villagers from Shinnyu, which will help ameliorate the unemployment problem to a great extent."

 

He further informed Inside Northeast that the district administration has many projects in the pipeline, which it hopes to accomplish one-by-one.

 

 

"Very ambitious plans we have in mind. For instance, we plan to manufacture LED bulbs in Nagaland itself to better the quality of life here. We are having a lot of load-shedding in Nagaland because the state is dependent on power from outside. Therefore, we are planning to normalize the adoption of LED bulbs. It will upgrade both the quality and quantity of the power and the load-shedding will be automatically reduced. We have mapped out some projects that we wish to accomplish in the upcoming years."

 

The total cost of the project, including the cost of logistics for transport of all the materials from New Delhi, is said to be 23 lakhs. This was done under CSR funding, informed the district administration.

 

 

It needs mention here that Mon, which is Nagaland's northeastern district, has many unrecognized villages and habitations that are yet to receive the boon of electricity.

 

New Nokyan, Old Jaboka villages under Hunta Sub-Division, Apao Changle Village under Aboi sub division, Longwa Wasa under Phomching Sub-Division, Hongkhong, Ukha Lampong, Yaphang Villages under Mopong Sub-Division, Jakphang Hongha under Angjangyang Sub-Division, Shinnyu and Obay villages under Monyakshu Sub-Division are yet to receive electricity connectivity.

 

 

"In the next phase, we are working on electrifying more villages in addition to several Health Units and Schools," said Thavaseelan K, the Deputy Commissioner of Mon.