Patna: Bihar, after having taken power to all its revenue villages, is racing to electrify all its habitations.

Chief minister Nitish Kumar had announced on December 27 last year that all the 39,073 revenue villages of the state had been electrified, and the state government has set May 2018 as the deadline for taking power to all the 1,06,249 habitations of which around 85,000 habitations have been electrified.

The North Bihar Power Distribution Company and South Bihar Power Distribution Company are doing the work. Power has reached all habitations of seven districts: Gopalganj, Kishanganj, Purnea, Madhepura, Sheikhpura, Nalanda, and Munger.

"There are two districts where we have to electrify less than 100 habitations and work in these districts would be completed well before the end of January," said a senior power official. "There are three districts where less than 200 habitations are in want of electrification and we intend to finalise the work before end of February in these districts," the official said. The distribution companies are keeping regular tab on the firms that have been awarded the rural electrification work so that no deadline is missed.

"In the past we had achieved great pace and had electrified more than 35 revenue villages in a month, which is around 200 habitations. At present around 50 to 100 habitations are being electrified in a month. We have asked the selected firms to enhance the pace as we have to achieve the target by May at any cost," said the official.

The main area of concern for the distribution companies is the seven districts - Saran, Bhagalpur, Sitamarhi, East Champaran, Muzaffarpur, Kaimur, and Aurangabad - where more than 1,000 habitations each have to be electrified in around five months.

"If the selected firms in these districts would not enhance the pace of work by deputing more men and machinery we may put other agencies also for ensuring timely completion of electrification work," said the official.

Bihar aims to achieve yet another power milestone by the end of year: Electrifying all the households. For that, the state needs to electrify a little over three million households this year.