29been taken up in Uttaranchal and West Bengal through the National Productivity Council.4.5.2During the year, electrification projects were completed in 253 villages in 6 States. Electrification work is currentlyunderway in 843 villages and 723 hamlets. REC has so far provided a list of 2029 remote villages in 13 States, details of whichare given in Table 4.2. Concerned State implementing agencies have been advised to prepare detailed project reports forelectrification of these villages.Box4.2A Test Project has recently been commissioned at Kasai village in Betul district of Madhya Pradesh, which demonstratesthe concept of Village Energy Security through Biomass. Kasai is an unelectrified remote forest fringe Adivasi villagehaving a population of 392 with 73 families living at present in 55 households. The village is endowed with abundantbiomass resources in the form of wood (forests and farm land), crop residues, cattle dung and oil seeds. Plantations of fastgrowing species like Eucalyptus, Subabool and oil seed bearing trees like Jatropha have been raised in 10 hectares of landaround the village to ensure sustained supply of wood. The energy production unit comprises of two 10 kW biomassgasifiers coupled with engine-gensets, which will provide electricity for various requirements of the village. To start with,two lights in each household, school, engine room and streets have been provided. A flourmill has been energized and awater pump and milk-chilling unit are also proposed. A few households have started to use music systems and colourtelevisions. An expeller unit is proposed to be installed to extract oil from the Jatropha oilseeds, which will be used foroperating pumpsets. Improved chulhas have been constructed in every house to conserve firewood and biogas plants arebeing setup to meet cooking energy needs of households. The inhabitants of Kasai village are delighted at this intervention.Test Project on Village Energy Security at Village Kasai in BetulDistrict, Madhya PradeshShri Vilas Muttemwar, Honble Minister for Non-conventional EnergySources inaugurating the Kasai Test Project on October 29, 2005Meeting Energy needs of Village Kasai, District Betul, Madhya PradeshBiomass GasifierHome LightingStreet Lighting