Prime Minister Narendra Modi vowed to provide round the clock electricity for India's capital Saturday as he kicked off his party's campaign in elections to Delhi's state assembly. Delhi has an unenviable reputation both for blackouts and as one of the world's most polluted capitals, with diesel fumes from back-up generators adding to the cocktail of smog that regularly blankets the city.
But in a speech to supporters of his right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the prime minister said he would soon make generators redundant. "I promise that I will provide you with a 24-hour supply of electricity," said Modi who came to power after a landslide general election win in May.
Although the situation has improved since an infamous summer of city-wide blackouts in 2012, the Indian capital is still regularly hit by localised power cuts that are seen as hampering economic growth. India's energy sector is almost entirely state-run and recent moves by the BJP government to open up part of the coal sector to private firms prompted a strike earlier this week.
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