Electricity consumers of six more towns of Jharkhand can now avail online billing facilities by the end of this year. With the step, the Jharkhand State Electricity Board (JSEB) would start data entry about electricity bill that can be viewed online.
The Board, following the start of the facility on pilot basis from lohardaga in October, is set to reach Patratu, Musabani, Ghatshila, Fusro, Gomia and one more town by the end of December.
“We have made arrangements and six more towns would be brought under the online billing system. In the beginning, we will start feeding billing data which can be accessed by the consumers through the internet after some more time,” said MC Karan, General Manager for Restructured-Accelerated Power Development and Reforms Programme (R-APDRP).
The towns would be connected through the centralised data center, inaugurated by Chief Minister Hemant Soren in Ranchi in October. Under the R-APDRP the data centre is ultimately to help in generating timely electricity bills in 30 towns of the State. This apart, the JSEB is also working to extend the service to eight more towns by January, 2014.
“The next step would be to provide consumers of the connected towns an option to pay their electricity bills online. Initially we tried to bring in place our own payment gateway but the Government norms imply to adopt their system only. Payment gateways of either Bank of India or ICICI Bank would be adopted,” added MC Karan. The facility would take some more time to become functional that would make online payment of electricity bills possible.
Informing more JSEB Chairman SN Verma said that the Board was in the process of setting up a data recovery center at Jamshedpur. “Data recovery center at Jamshedpur to keep backup data has come up. Though it has not been commissioned yet,” he said.
All the 30 selected towns would be linked to the Ranchi data centre within March 31 next year and later with the backup data center.
The Board has received Rs 1,800 crore from the Center under the second phase of R-APDRP for underground cabling works to be done in the 30 selected towns. Rs 400 crore need to be spent only in Ranchi to strengthen the entire power supply system within the fixed time period. As per the terms of R-APDRP, the entire sum paid by the Centre would be considered as loan if the State fails to complete the project on time.