A campaign for recovery of outstanding dues coupled with an austerity drive resulted in a profit of Rs42 crores to the Uttarakhand Power Corporation limited (UPCl) in the financial year 2013-14. The Managing Director of UPCl, SS Yadav said this while addressing the media here on Monday. Interestingly the corporation achieved profit for the first time since its establishment.
Yadav said that the corporation earned revenue of Rs3,838 crore from the recovery of outstanding dues while the damage rate of power transformers was reduced to 8 per cent from 11 per cent which is significant. The corporation was also able to reduce the Aggregated Technical and Commercial losses by 2.71 per cent this year. He claimed that due to these measures UPCl would soon leapfrog into top 15 DISCOMs of the country.
On the issue of power tariff rates, the MD of UPCl expressed his anguish at the decision of Uttarakhand Electricity Regulatory Commission, which struck down the UPCl’s proposal to increase the tariffs by 18.71 per cent. Claiming that the UPCl is providing the cheapest power to the consumers of the State as tariff rates in other State are much higher, he added that the corporation would challenge the regulators decision.
Yadav claimed that the corporation is providing 24 hour power to the consumers of the urban areas while the rural areas are receiving 22 hour a day which is highest in the country. He said that UPCl is committed not indulge in power cuts and to maintain 24 hour power supplies to all the consumers once the Maneri Bhali phase II project starts production.
Yadav informed that the UPCl undertook a massive drive to replace defective meters and was able to replace 1.77 lakh such meters this year and the remaining 19,000 such meters would be replaced soon. He added that similar drive was initiated to place meters at 38,000 unmetered supplies and 30,000 meters have been placed at such connections. In response to a query Yadav informed that various municipalities and Municipal corporations owe about Rs five crores to UPCl under the streetlights head while the water works department owes the corporation about Rs179 crores.
He added that the aforesaid amounts are without any penalties or surcharges.
The UPCl MD asked the power consumers to avail the toll free consumer service which is available at the number 18004190404. He also said that any cases of power theft should be immediately informed at the toll free number 18001804185; he assured that the identity of caller who informs about the cases of theft would be kept secret by the department. Yadav claimed that the voltage problems in Pithoragarh area have been sorted by commissioning a 220 KV sub station and the Dehradun area was relieved of overload problems by commissioning of 220 KV Jhajra sub station.
Yadav said that to restore power supplies in the aftermath of last year’s natural disaster was a challenging task which the UPCl accomplished successfully. He claimed that electricity was restored in all the Char Dham shrines including Kedarnath before the start of Yatra this year.