Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday promised to provide electricity to 18,500 power-less villages in the country in the next 1,000 days.

 

 

 "There are 18,500 villages in the country where electricity is yet to reach. If we keep working with old ways, then maybe we will take 10 years to get electricity poles to these villages," Modi said in his Independence Day address.

 

 Modi said he met government officials and asked them how to proceed in order to provide electricity supply. "The officials replied that they can do it only by 2019," he said.

 

 "The country is not ready to wait that long," he said.

 

 "So Team India pledges today that power will reach these villages within the next 1,000 days," Modi said.