Guwahati, Dec. 31: Altogether 40 villages in Assam will get electricity on New Year's Day tomorrow.

Assam power minister Pallab Lochan Das told reporters here this afternoon that 40 villages across 17 districts would be electrified tomorrow in the presence of local MLAs and power department officials.

Villages will be electrified under the Centre's Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana.

Das said it would be a "New Year gift" to the villagers and also the beginning of the BJP-led government's initiatives to bring qualitative changes in the living standards of the state's rural populace.

The minister said the government has set a target to electrify all villages under Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana by March 2017. He said the power department has already sent a proposal to the Centre to receive funds to meet its target.

As per the Centre's 2006 rural electrification policy, a village is deemed "electrified" if basic infrastructure, such as distribution transformer and lines, have been set up in the inhabited locality.

Das said the government would execute an intensive electrification project under which all households of 10,000 villages would have electric connections by December 2017. He said under rural electrification scheme, the government would cover all villages, including those in forest areas. Villages that have been created by encroaching government lands will not be included under the scheme.

Das said the power department is making efforts to ensure uninterrupted power supply to different parts of the state, particularly Guwahati.

He said the peak hour power demand in the state is nearly 1,500MW and the state is producing 300MW on its own. The rest is being purchased from different agencies, Das said.