Is round-the-clock power to district headquarters towns by year-end possible?

Patna,(BiharTimes): Keeping in mind the commitment made by chief minister Nitish Kumar, while addressing Independence Day parade in Gandhi Maidan last year Bihar State Power (Holding) Company Limited (BSPHCL) has chalked out an ambitious plan to provide round-the-clock electricity to all the district headquarters towns by December 2013.

BSPHCL has already claimed that from August 2013 onwards, the district headquarters towns are getting 18-22 hours of electricity.

But reports from districts indicate that the picture is not so rosy. For example, Gaya, as usual, got very good power supply during the fortnight long Pitripaksha Mela. But once it was over last week it was back to square one.

Sources within BSPHCL seriously doubt the tall claim of providing power by the end of the year to all the district headquarters towns of the state. “It may be possible in next five-six years and that too when NTPC, Barh starts functioning,” an engineer told BiharTimes. Incidentally, chief minister Nitish Kumar reviewed work of NTPC in Barh on Wednesday.

Officials said that as the state government power plants are not in position to provide electricity, for may be next one decade, the state would have to rely heavily on NTPC and other such central units.

Sources said that the state-wise the transmission loss may be 42 per cent, but in the Magadh region it is as high as 80 per cent. However, he hastened to add that efforts are being made to improve the power supply during the festival season.

The BSPHCL is attributing the disruption in power supply to the local faults, which are hardly attended on time. Similarly, the power cuts on the pretext of maintenance work hardly follow its scheduled timing of shutdown.

It needs to be recalled that power board loss has jumped three-fold in just four years. It was Rs 2,109.41 crore in 2007-08 but the figure increased to Rs 8,520.71 crore in 2011-12.