Haryana Chief Minister, Manohar Lal on Thursday announced to install 10 lakh smart meters in the state by Power Discoms. Under the first phase, such meters would be started in Karnal and Gurugram whereas the work of installing 10,000 such meters has already started in Panipat.
Addressing a press conference organised to give the details of the reforms and achievements of the Power Department during last four years, here, he said under the Integrated Power Development Scheme of Government of India, a sum of Rs.390.59 crore has been sanctioned for improving power system of 47 towns of the state. Under the scheme, new 33 KV sub stations, 11 KV feeders, distribution transformers and capacity of existing transformers would be augmented.
Manohar Lal said with the consistent efforts of the Haryana Government in the last four years to bring reforms in the power sector along with transparency in the system, all the four power companies of the State have not only emerged from the losses but have also earned profit for the first time since the inception of the State.
Besides this, Annual Integrated Rankings of DISCOMs (issued by Ministry of Power, Govt. of India) has also recorded remarkable improvement.
The ratings of UHBVN which was 22nd during Financial Year 2015-16 has come to 10th during Financial Year 2016-17. Similarly, the rating of DHBVN which was 24th during Financial Year 2015-16 has come to 13thduring Financial Year 2016-17. Efforts would be made to bring these to first three positions in the rating for the year 2018-19.
Giving details, the chief minister said that the present State Government is the first such Government since inception of Haryana which has reduced power tariff and FSA. He said that the power tariff has been reduced to almost half due to which there has been considerable reduction in electricity bills of domestic consumers.
Now the domestic consumers with consumption up to 200 units would get power at the rate of Rs. 2.50 per unit. Earlier it was Rs. 4.50 per unit up to 150 units and Rs. 5.25 per unit for next 50 units. Now the consumer would have to pay only Rs. 2 per unit for monthly consumption of 50 units.