PANJIM: The State government has spent whopping Rs 45 crore to revamp power infrastructure ahead of the upcoming G20 meetings scheduled in Goa.
Secretary Protocol and Nodal Officer G20 Sanjit Rodrigues said that with Rs 45 crore budget allocations, permanent electricity works have been undertaken at the areas where the G20 meetings are scheduled thus lightening up the State.
“Uninterrupted power supply as a requisite for G20 meetings has benefitted Goa through installation of new smart power saving fixtures and fixing issues with power supply. A well illuminated Panjim makes a big difference,” he said in a statement issued.
Electricity department executive engineer Arun Patil said that the quality of power has to be without a single interruption and this was not possible to achieve without plugging the bottle necks and other infrastructure related issues that affect power supply.
He said that the main hurdle was to restore power supply to areas of Bambolim, Dona Paula and surrounding areas where the meetings would be taking place, starting from April 17.
“These areas get supply from the feeder at Kadamba Plateau, and during the road widening works, three vital power cables were pushed beneath the upper surface of the road and were embedded under the concrete. So, rectifying this power feed was not viable. So the task was huge, both in terms of cost and manpower to shift these cables,” he explained.
Another important work carried out is shifting of the electricity load from the sub-station near NIO Colony, Dona Paula.
The outdated HPSV fixtures that consumed 150 watts are replaced with power saving LED 110 watts fixtures, with a monthly saving of Rs 3 lakhs on energy.
