Early Times Report
SRINAGAR, Sept 6: Union Minister of State for Power, R K Singh took a detailed review of the J&K's power sector in a meeting held under the chairmanship of Governor, Satya Pal Malik at SKICC here today.
B B Vyas Advisor to Governor, BVR Subrahmanyam, Chief Secretary, J&K, Dr PV Ramesh, CMD REC; K B Agarwal, Chairman, CVPPL, Navin Kumar Choudhary, Principal Secretary Finance; Rohit Kansal, Principal Secretary Planning; Hirdesh Kumar, Commissioner/ Secretary, Power Development Department; Sheikh Fayaz, Secretary, Science & Technology, Joint Secretary Distribution, Ministry of Power, senior executives of Central PSUs; PGCIL, RECPDCL, RECPTCL, officers from State PSUs; JKSPDC, CVPPPL-and senior officers of the Power Development Department attended the meeting.
Commissioner/Secretary, PDD, Hirdesh Kumar made a detailed presentation on the implementation of the flagship programme Saubhagya (Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana). He also gave an overall picture of the generation, transmission and distribution plans of the state and the implementation status of various hydroelectric projects being implemented by JKSPDC and CVPPL.
Commissioner/ Secretary, PDD informed that the state has achieved 100% electrification of un-electrified villages before the stipulated timeline of 30th April, 2018. He further informed that out of 3.82 lakh un-electrified households as on 10-10-2017, 1.19 lakh households have been electrified till date and the remaining households shall be electrified by 30th November 2018. In the last 20 days alone, 60,000 households have been electrified and at this rate, the department is confident of electrifying all remaining 2.6 lakh households by 30th November, 2018.
The Union Power Minister was further informed of the progress under Centrally Sponsored Schemes of DDUGJY, IPDS, RGGVY-II and PMDP, of which work on 150 projects have been completed and in 153 projects work is in progress.
The Governor and Union Power Minister stressed upon RECPDCL that the work on smart /pre-paid metering should be immediately tendered and installation of the envisaged 9 lakh prepaid meters and 2 lakh smart meters should be completed on priority to reduce the huge AT&C losses and improve collection efficiency. The Union Minister asked Commissioner / Secretary, PDD that those areas where bill payment is high should be provided power supply 24x7. This would be a reward for these areas.
Governor stressed close monitoring of all the projects under implementation and directed the PDD to ensure close inter-departmental co-ordination, particularly with Central PSUs which are implementing agencies, e.g. PGCIL, RECPDCL and RECTPCL, and directed them to complete all these works well before the envisaged time limit of 24 months. |
