Electricity hope for 3 Buxa Hill villages

Youths carry electric wires. (Anirban Choudhury)

TT, Alipurduar, Nov. 7: The state electricity department has started laying cables in Buxa Hill area to supply power to 60-odd families in three villages.

Buxa Hill, around 30km from here, has 11 villages and none of them has electricity.

Officials said Buxa Fort, Daragaon and Sadarbazar villages would be covered in the first phase of electrification and they were likely to get power by this month.

Dipankar Saha, the regional manager of West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company Limited, Alipurduar, said: "The cost (for the first phase) will not be less than Rs 3 crore as the road is bad and there is no other option but to trek. It takes a lot of time to carry poles and other materials to the villages. In the first phase, our target is to reach Buxa Fort village. On the way, there is Daragaon and Sadarbazar. Work began a couple of months ago and we have asked villagers to apply for connection."

The nearest motorable road from Buxa Hill is at Santlabari, 5km away, from where one has to trek to the hill.

The three villages are within 5km and Daragaon is at the lowest level, followed by Sadarbazar and Buxa Fort.

"We are having to engage local people to take the materials up and hence, the total project cost depends on how fast they work," Saha said.

The nearest power office to the hill is in Alipurduar.

Buxa Fort used to be a detention camp during the British Period and it is at 2,488ft above the sea level. The hill in Buxa Tiger Reserve is frequented by tourists. Adma is the highest among the 11 villages.

Prakash Thapa, from Sadarbazar, said youths engaged by the power company were earning around Rs 300 a day. "In the absence of power, our children can't study properly. There are four homestays but tourists do not come in winter because we can't give them hot water."

Most villagers belong to the Dukpa tribe.