AID Austin -Bilgaon Project

Bilgaon Village : From Darkness to Light

Bilgaon a tribal village in the Narmada valley consists of 12 hamlets(i.e. about 180 households) strewn around different ranges of the Satpuda mountains. There is an "Aashramshaala" or boarding school for 300 children from neighbouring villages. These villages have never seen electricity even 55 years after independence. The nearest point on the national grid, Dhadgaon, is about 12 kms away.

Bilgaon, Nandurbar District, Maharashtra

Like all tribal villages, Bilgaon is rich in natural resources. There is a 9 m high waterfall at Bilgaon on River Udai before it meets Narmada. The people in the village formed a committee, where every household is a member, and decided to tap the energy of the waterfall through a micro-hydel system and light their entire village.The Chikali Gram Panchayat passed a resolution supporting the project.

Bilgaon’s beautiful waterfall A village meets

Inspired by the Narmada Bachao Andolan the village people did 2000 human-days of Shramdaan (voluntary labour) to construct a check dam, canal, Forebay Tank, Penstock and power-house. The small check dam 2 metres high on the top of the Water Falls diverts a small part of the water through the canal to the Forebay Tank adjacent to the top of the falls.

Shramdaan to construct the check dam Completed Check dam at the top of the falls

The project was designed by engineers from People’s School of Energy and implemented by the Bombay Sarvodaya Friendship Centre with support from AID.

Completed Canal Shramdaan to construct the Forebay Tank

From the Forebay Tank the waters fall in a regulated manner, 9 metres just like the waterfalls, through a penstock (pipeline) on to a Turbine situated in a power house at the foot of the falls. The penstock was made by volunteers from Dhule and the turbine by a professor from IISc Bangalore.

15 KW Turbine

From Darkness unto Light !                                               Bilgaon children at the community school.
                                                                                          The project provided electricity at this school

The falling water turns the turbine which rotates a generator and produces 15 KW of electricity to light up every house of Bilgaon and the Ashramshala.The Bilgaon Micro-Hydro Project was supported by 4 AID chapters to a tune of Rs 12 Lakhs. In addition, the Ashramshala donated Rs 50,000. The work started in May 2002 and the project was completed in January 2003.

Bilgaon’s day time electricity can be used for creating livelihoods by putting a flour mill, oil extractor, for pumping water for drinking and for creating a nursery for afforestation.

The Rural development Minister of Maharashtra congratulated Bilgaon on Jan 14, 2003 when the project was inaugurated

Click Here to read the complete project details right from its inception.