The Hindu : New Delhi News : NDMC ropes in Power Grid for distribution schemes

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Sep 05, 2007
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New Delhi

New Delhi

NDMC ropes in Power Grid for distribution schemes

Manisha Jha

“Electricity overhaul budget pegged at Rs. 550 crore”

Grid to provide consultancy for monitoring distribution network
To be completed within 30 months from the date of commencement

NEW DELHI: Bogged down by several power breakdowns mainly because of non-implementation of its electricity infrastructure up-gradation plans for the past eight years, the New Delhi Municipal Council has finally decided to get its act together.

At a special meeting this past week, the NDMC approved in principle a plan to entrust the Power Grid Corporation of India Limited with execution of up-gradation schemes for its 33 kV and 66 kV electricity distribution system.

The civic body this past July had taken the decision to entrust Power Grid with the work of providing consultancy services for real-time monitoring of its distribution network. A Memorandum of Articles incorporating rates and terms and conditions on which the work will be carried out by Power Grid is awaited. The time-frame for the entire work is proposed to be 30 months from the date of commencement.

“We have approved the overall electricity overhaul plan budget at about Rs. 550 crore,” said a senior NDMC member.

The NDMC has already issued a letter to Power Grid in July inviting quotation to carry out the work for establishing and commissioning two NDMC sub-stations on Church Road and B. D. Marg.

The NDMC desires that the proposed system-strengthening project should employ the best available technology to add several new electricity sub-stations, transmission lines, communication systems and an improved distribution network.

Says NDMC spokesperson Anand Kumar Tiwari: “Our talks with Power Grid indicate a completely fresh approach to provide quality and efficient power supply to the NDMC areas through a holistic plan drafted with the future in mind.”

“Our eventual plan is to fast-track the whole process of capacity creation up to 2020. We plan to do this through a two-pronged strategy of increasing our transmission capacity and meeting projected demand of 650 MW by 2010 and 1,000 MW by 2020. At present, the demand in the NDMC area is about 300 MW,” he adds.

Though earlier several schemes for its electricity infrastructure up-gradation had been framed, approved and sanctioned by the NDMC, they could not be implemented for several reasons. According to the NDMC spokesperson, very little developmental and augmentation work could be carried out in the past eight years mainly because no strong need had been felt for the same due to the then available extra capacity in the system, staff constraints and divergent views of the then chief engineers. Elaborate procedure for award of works through tedious rules and procedures also contributed to the impasse.

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