LHASA — A sparsely populated township in Tibet autonomous region has been connected to the state electricity grid, ending life without electricity for its 32 residents, local authorities said on Jan 2.

The 15-km-long 10-kilovolt power line, which took five months to complete, is connected to remote Yulmed township in Luntse county, Shannan city, via 108 electric poles over a 5,000-meter-high mountain, according to the contractor, a Xining-based electric power company in neighboring Qinghai province.

Yulmed has an average elevation of 3,650 meters and its population was once reduced to one three-member household. Now it has nine households.

In 2008, the local government built a small hydropower station, but it failed to meet increasing power demands, due to improved living standards of the residents, and power outages were frequent.