Kerala - Alappuzha   

Training on for power-line mapping

ALAPPUZHA: A State-level training programme for select panchayats as part of the State’s Total Energy Security Mission was inaugurated by Transport Minister Mathew T. Thomas at Muhamma, near here, on Monday.

Mr. Thomas said the Total Energy Security Mission was part of the State government’s efforts to improve the living conditions of the common man.

The first phase of the mission would involve three surveys to check the general availability and extent of power supply in the State, identifying problems in the existing supply network, and a power line mapping project.

The five-day programme inaugurated on Monday is for the power-line mapping project. It will train over 200 delegates from across the State on how to go about mapping the power line network.

Such a database would help prevent transmission losses, avoid unnecessary connections and expenses incurred thereby, and identify where new power lines had to be drawn, the Minister said.

The first year of the mission has selected 300 panchayats from the across the State, 12 of them from Alappuzha, for the training.

The second year would involve more panchayats and look at ways of ensuring power supply to all homes in the State, streetlights for all major thoroughfares, pocket roads, lanes and bylanes, proper utilisation of traditional energy sources and also at domestic generation of adequate cooking gas.

The training programme is being conducted jointly by the grama panchayats, the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) and the Agency for Non-conventional Energy and Rural Technology (ANERT).

Later the Minister said that the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation was contemplating the use of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) as fuel for its buses on an experimental basis.

Mr. Thomas said that the State-run Energy Management Centre (EMC) had been entrusted with the job of studying the feasibility of using the Russian technology of LNG as an alternative fuel for its buses.

“The project is still in the planning stage and the modalities are being worked out. We are not looking at a complete replacement of diesel with LNG as fuel.

But the use of LNG is said to reduce fuel expenses and curb pollution without any risks involved. Once the EMC checks out the feasibility of LNG, we will take a decision on its use,” the Minister told reporters.

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Training on for power-line mapping

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