The Hindu : New Delhi News : `Reliable power supply soon'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jul 20, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

`Reliable power supply soon'

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, JULY 19. Delhiites would soon receive uninterrupted, reliable and quality electricity supply, the Special Secretary (Power), Arun Goyal, said here today.

Addressing a seminar here on the power scenario in Delhi, Mr. Goyal said the Delhi Transco along with power discoms - BSES and NDPL - would be making a substantial investments worth Rs. 2,000 crores in upgrading the electricity distribution system of the Capital.

The BSES alone is purchasing equipments worth Rs. 900 crores, he said at seminar organised by the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

"We are making all efforts to make power available on regular basis to all parts of Delhi," Mr. Goyal said.

Commenting on the issue of availability of power at a very high cost, he said pricing was largely dependent on how much losses were brought under control with active cooperation of the consumers.

Referring to statistics, he said the rate of load-shedding was 3 per cent of the total power supply in 2001-2002, but after privatisation it reduced to 2.3 per cent in 2002-2003 and dropped further to just 1 per cent in 2003-2004.

In his address, the BSES chief executive officer, Rakesh Aggarwal, said a major issue for the discoms was managing theft.

In East and Central Delhi, the losses were as high as 60 per cent of the power supply.

In order to reduce theft, the discom, he said, had launched a special electrification drive in 400 unauthorised colonies at an estimated cost of Rs. 400 crores. A similar exercise was being done to bring the industry and commercial consumers under the billing net.

The NDPL chief executive officer, Anil Sardana, said the demand for power in Delhi was growing at a rate of 8 per cent per annum.

"It is therefore important that Delhi should consider generating its own power so as to meet the ever growing demand of electricity," he said.

The PHDCCI president and Ravi Wig, and its Energy Committee chairman, S. C. Goel, were also present on the occasion.

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