Pre paid...7 May 2018 17:18
Uttar Pradesh is set for a �power�-ful turnaround. Faced with the twin challenges of providing power to every household by December, 2018 and containing huge line losses, the state government is going to install a whopping 10 million pre-paid meters under the Saubhagya scheme, which aims to add more than 40 million rural households in the state to the power grid by December this year.
The pre-paid meters, to be installed in 13 districts that have been reporting the maximum line losses, including Kanpur, Varanasi, Meerut, Gorakhpur, Bareilly and Lucknow, would allow consumers to recharge electricity in advance. Quite similar to how they recharge their mobile phones, consumers can recharge electricity for a sum as small as Rs 50.
The state government had, through the Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL), floated a tender for supply of 10 million prepaid meters in November last year. Larsen and Toubro (L&T), Genus Power, and Allied Engineering bagged the contracts. While Genus Power Infrastructures would supply 50% of the order, L&T would supply 30% and Allied Engineering the remaining 20% � the meters are estimated to cost `1,375 crore. Work on installing the meters will begin in rural areas from June 1, with the exercise mandated to take a year�s time.