PANJIM: Power Minister Pandurang Madkaikar has said that the work to replace 3 lakh analogue electricity meters to digital will begin by next month for which the work has already been tendered.
Speaking to Herald, Madkaikar said, “The electricity department will be replacing three lakh analogue electricity meters in the State with digital meters. The work has been already been tendered and the production has begun. By next month the work to replace these meters will begin.”
“There are around 60,000 analogue electricity meters which are faulty and because of this the department could not bill the consumers according to their electricity consumption,” he said.
The power minster also informed that the tender for procuring smart electricity meters under the smart city initiative will be floated in the next few days.
“We are in the process of finalising the tendering documents along with its specifications and in the next 15 days, the government will be in a position to float the tender for procuring smart electricity meters under the smart city initiative for the city of Panjim on a pilot basis,” Madkaikar said.
“There were multiple companies which came up with the latest technology in digital meters and we wanted the best and the latest technology and that is the reason the floating of tender was delayed,” he said.
He further said that approximately 70,000 smart electricity meters will be installed in Panjim and the entire Division I for an estimated cost of Rs 60-70 crore.
“These meters will be read by a computer automatically every hour and will also tell if the meter has gone wrong. The bill will be automatically generated by the computer and consumer will be notified through SMS and email,” he added.
Stating that the smart electricity meters will be accurate in reading and errors will be zero, the minister said these smart meters would reduce inaccuracies in billing and customers will get proper monthly bills. “Meter readers in Division I will be put to different work and none will lose their jobs,” he clarified.
