TEAM HERALD
[email protected]
PANJIM: Power Minister Milind Naik promised to begin in earnest the underground cabling work on the 33KV power lines across the length and breadth of the state, in a bid to reduce serious power outages.
Replying to the discussion on the demands for grants to the electricity department, Naik said that as of today, the state had 20% of the its 33KV lines already running underground which was achieved over the last ten years.
“The faster we complete, the less interruptions we will have. We will try to complete as much as possible over the next few years and draw up estimates, Naik said adding that it was estimated to cost nearly Rs 20,000 crore to transfer the 33 KV cables underground.
Legislators cutting across party lines had raised the issue of frequent power cuts with the Opposition even moving a cut motion citing constant failure of electricity causing losses to those industries especially having continuous processes and causing damage to household electronic and electrical equipment.
The minister also gave a status report of the department in terms of past accomplishments especially that of providing underground cabling to the sub stations from the main station, as well as of building new sub-stations in various areas of the state. He also promised to fill the vacant posts in the department citing the manpower shortage the department is facing.
In a bid to hasten the process of delivering electricity bills, Naik said that they would be outsourcing the work of billing for one year to a private agency until the backlog of bills is cleared. “Once the backlog is cleared we will employ meter readers and will then start issuing bills on a monthly basis,” Naik said.
Several MLAs had raised the issue of bills being received by consumers after three to four months and that the hefty bills could not be paid especially by the poorer people.
