The Hindu : New Delhi News : “Delhi’s power privatisation model worth emulating”

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jul 26, 2007
ePaper

New Delhi

New Delhi

“Delhi’s power privatisation model worth emulating”

Staff Reporter

“Imperative for the discoms to venture into power generation to meet the city’s needs”
The high point of the reforms was the substantial lowering of the losses: Haroon Yusuf

NEW DELHI: Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit on Wednesday said Delhi’s power privatisation model can serve as a template for similar restructuring across the country.

Speaking at a conference on ‘Five Years of Power Sector Reforms in Delhi: A Review’ organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Ms. Dikshit described the privatisation of the power sector as a “success story” and said other States can replicate the Delhi model.

But even as she cited figures indicative of reforms, the Chief Minister said there was need to guard against complacency. While she listed the steps taken by the department to procure power, the Chief Minister said it was imperative for the power distribution companies to venture into power generation to meet the city’s needs.

Recalling developments that paved the way for the unbundling of the erstwhile Delhi Vidyut Board, Ms. Dikshit said: “It was not an easy task. There were many doubts and concerns including the consumers’ reactions.”

She praised the private power discoms for accepting the challenge of taking over the power distribution in a city overwhelmed by frequent and prolonged outages and high aggregate technical and commercial losses, and was quick to point out that the Government made no compromise vis-À-vis protecting the consumers’ interests.

Describing the public outcry against fast-running meters as “hullabaloo”, the Chief Minister said: “There was no going back on the issue of replacing meters once we had made up our mind. The system has been made transparent and we have noticed a visible change…there no longer is a fuss about fast-running meters.”

Making a jibe at the practice of tampering with electricity meters, the Chief Minister said the genius of the “Indian mind has already brought out gadgets that can stop the electronic meters”.

Power Minister Haroon Yusuf said the high point of the reforms was the substantial lowering of the losses.

“One of the most disturbing features of the pre-reform situation was the high levels of transmission and distribution losses, which had risen to around 50 per cent. While the target under the reform process was to reduce losses by 17 per cent, the loss levels targets have been over-achieved,” he said.

The Power Minister said gas-based power plants had been planned for installation at Bawana and Bamnauli and work on a new coal-based plant has been taken up by NTPC at Jhajjar in Haryana.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

New Delhi