Press "Enter" to skip to content

4 Ladakhi engineers bring electricity to village near LAC through solar energy

Dungti village is located very close to the Line of Actual Control (LAC). Its residents are mostly herders of Pashmina goat and they earn their living primarily from selling the fine Pashmina wool. This settlement doesn’t have any access to basic electricity.

A team of four Ladakhi engineers associated with the Global Himalayan Expedition (GHE) brought light into this village on 4 February 2021 through solar energy. Engineer Shakir Hussain said that they have electrified about 100 villages in Ladakh with solar-based DC electricity within past eight years. They surveyed the village to see if it has access to electricity or not and found that it was in darkness.

They set up an 8.6 KW setup for the entire village. They provided every house a solar nano grid with three LED lights and two LED batons alongside USB charging facilities. The team bring light to 52 homes of village. Other than that, they have also set up 10 solar LED street lights, connected the local community hall and monastery with an electric line.

Shakir said that they worked for five days in order to electrify the village. He also took help of three solar engineers from GHE to accomplish the task. Engineers also have to face some challenges like they didn’t have a place to settle and weather was extremely cold and it became very hard for them to work.

Another engineer Gurmet Angmo said that it’s so cold in this region that wiring is difficult, especially outside the house. They would have to take the wiring inside the home, heat it up next to the bukhari, and then cut it.

Equipments required for the village electrification were sponsored by the CSR (corporate social responsibility) arm of Royal Enfield. Using these equipments, the GHE team successfully electrified the village on 4 February, 2021. When engineers completed the process of electrification of village and switched on lights, the villagers were very extremely happy witnessing it for the first time. Every household gifted the team khatags (a traditional ceremonial scarf which is given on various occasions in Tibetan Buddhist communities) to express gratitude to them.