Swiftness shown by the Uttarakhand Power Corporation limited (UPCl) after facing the brunt of the natural calamities has paid off, as out of 4,222 villages across the State that went without electricity, power supply has been resumed to most of the villages except two villages in Bhattwadi block of Uttarkashi district.
Department officials told that the stern instructions have been already issued to the engineers to resume the electricity in the affected villages. However, officials lamented that the adverse weather conditions and tough hilly terrains of the district has been hampering the department’s efforts for resuming the electricity in the block.
It is also noteworthy that the UPCl has incurred the loss of Rs 64.16 crore besides, Rs 14.25 crore as waive off electricity billed amount in the disaster affected areas of the district. The power generation in the State-run hydro power projects has started plunging with the advent of winter season in Uttarakhand.
After realising the fact that the gap between demand and supply of electricity has been increasing month after month, the UPCl has decided to procure electricity from the private electricity generators and will procure 245 megawatt electricity for the next month. It is also equally important to mention here is that hydro power projects got the brunt of the natural calamities in the month of June.
In an exclusive interaction with The Pioneer, SS Yadav, Managing Director, UPCl said that in a move to curtail the gap between demand and supply of electricity in the State, the department has been procuring four million units per day and emergency cut has been implemented depending on the grid frequency.
“The department has completed all pending projects in the given time frame for ensuring the disruption free electricity to the consumers during festive season,” he said, adding that department has already drafted plans for procuring 250 megawatt electricity between April and June the next year.
Yadav stressed that the department has been replacing power cables with ABC (insulated) for curtailing the pilferage cases in the State. Yadav said that stern instructions have been already issued to the vigilance cell of the department for keeping a tab on the pilferage and strict department action would be surely taken against those, who use electricity without having valid electricity connection.
Yadav assured that couple of plans is in the pipeline for enhancing the facilities in the bill collection centres and claimed that the power supply would be resorted to affected areas by the end of this month.