More Ethnic Minorities in Son La Connected to Grid

The Northern Power Corporation under the Electricity of Vietnam (EVN NPC) on December 22 began providing electricity from the national grid to 121 households in Buot village, Tan Xuan commune, Moc Chau district in the northern mountainous province of Son La.The construction to supply electricity for the local people commenced in May 2012, with 8km of medium-voltage lines and 3km of 0.4kV lines put into place and a 75kVA transformer station was completed.This is the first phase of the VND557 billion project to provide electricity to 30,000 households in 557 villages of 106 communes in 10 districts and one city of Son La province.The project, the biggest of its kind in Son La province, will be completed in 2015 with 85% of the investment sourced from the State budget and 15% from the EVN NPC.It is expected that additional 3,000 households in 75 villages will have access to electricity before the Lunar New Year 2013, raising the percentage of communes in Son La having electricity to 100% in 2013’s first quarter. (Nhan Dan – The People Dec 24)