Bangalore: As many as 400 power stations will be set up across the State by the next financial year to meet the growing demand for power supply, Managing Director of Karnataka State Power Transmission Corporation Limited (KPTCL) Bharat Lal Meena said here on Saturday.

Of the 400 stations, 150 will be set up in Bangalore Urban and Bangalore Rural districts, he said at an interaction meeting organised as part of "Bharat Nirman" public information campaign organised by the Press Information Bureau.

Mr. Meena said the corporation and all electricity supply companies (ESCOMs) were taking steps towards better use of information technology for making their services customer friendly.

"We want to give reliable and quality power to our customers and to this end we want to use IT to provide better services," he added.

There were many remote areas in the State where there was no electricity. Under the Rajiv Gandhi Rural Electrification programme, every village would have electricity by 2012. Work on the project would start shortly in nine districts, he said.

Answering a question about the delay in billing and meter reading, Gonal Bhimmappa, Managing Director of Bangalore Electricity Supply Company, said that spot billing had been introduced and customers now did not face the inconvenience of waiting for the bill or obtaining duplicate bill.

A customer from Yelahanka, Krishnappa, said that many of the BESCOM offices did not have citizen charter put up for the benefit of consumers. He urged the officials to set a timeframe for sanction of new electricity connections. "They should be allotted on priority depending on the applications received. The customers should be made aware of how long they have to wait before they can get a connection," he added.

Mr. Bhimmappa said that he would direct all BESCOM offices to display the citizen charter. The authorities would look into the issue of setting a timeframe for new connections.

Archana Datta, Deputy Director General (Media and Communications), PIB, said such programmes were being organised to bridge the communication gap between consumers and service delivery agencies.

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