A total of 258 villages in six states were electrified during the third week of February under the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojna, an official statement said on Monday.

“Of these electrified villages, 120 villages belong to Odisha, 64 in Jharkhand, 41 villages in Assam, 19 in Madhya Pradesh, 8 in Rajasthan, and 6 in Chhattisgarh,” said the power ministry statement, adding a total of 5,537 villages have been electrified during 2015-16 till date.

The government has decided to electrify the remaining 18,452 un-electrified villages by May 1, 2018, it said.

“Out of the remaining 12,915 villages, 9,026 villages are to be electrified through grid, 3,381 villages through off-grid where grid solutions are out of reach due to geographical barriers and 508 villages are to be electrified by the state governments.

“The project has been taken on mission mode and strategy for electrification consists of squeezed implementation schedule of 12 months with 12-stage milestones for village electrification monitoring with defined timelines,” the statement added.