Saqib Junaid
Early Times Report
SRINAGAR, June 21: After the Power Development Department failed to complete the installation of meters on its own, government has decided to outsource metering installation project to a central agency for its expedition process and has set up a target of 100 percent metering by 2019.
Earlier the department in its multi-year tariff petition filed before the State Electricity Regulatory Commission said it had envisaged metering all its consumers by the end of the FY 2015-16, but the pace of metering has been very slow during the last couple of years due to "resource constraints and some bottlenecks". In order to achieve this objective and put it on fast track, the department had decided to outsource the complete project
"The JKPDD has revised the metering plan and now proposes to meter all the consumers by the end of 2018-19. Owing to repeated failure of tendering process, a parallel mechanism for procurement and installation of meters through a central government agency will also be put in place in addition to the procurement through tenders so that the metering process is expedited and completed within three years," the PDD petition says.
The PDD has been facing hurdles in installing metres in several areas due to public resentment resulting the department had missed several deadlines of 100 percent metering.
As per the government data, there are 8,38,258 metered power connections in Jammu and Kashmir, while the total consumers are 21,259,94. The Kashmir division number of power consumers tops the list with 12,83,598 followed by the Jammu division 8,01,257 and Ladakh division with 41,139.
The PDD has projected installation of 1147723 metres from 2015 to 2019 in domestic and non-domestic categories of which 202374 have been installed during 2015-2016, and has projected installation of 252537 metres in 2016-2017, 344709 in 2017-2018 and 348103 in 2018-2019.
Sources said the Department had earlier set up the target of 100 percent metering by 2014 and was later extended to 2015 after the cancelation of tenders in 2013-14 following wrong quotation submitted by one of the private companies and after facing protests in various parts of the State.
A senior official of PDD said the installation of meters is an ongoing process and the department would make its completion by 2019. "The installation of meters has been halted in some areas due to protests by the locals. But the government has decided to move ahead and complete the installation of metering within next three years," he said.
He said the installation of meters was to reduce the pilferage of power in transmission and distribution (T&D) process.
"The installation of metering would reduce the power pilferage and people will get 24-hour power supply. Once people will pay as per the usage of electricity, they will receive smooth electricity supply without any interruption," he said. |
