Pulled up by Patil,UT to convert electricity dept into corporation

The administrator directed officials to speed up the restructuring of the electricity department by finalising proposals and working out modalities for changing it to an autonomous body. Officials say that the first time the proposal was mooted was way back in 1999 and had received approval from the Centre. For various reasons,however,it never took off.

UT officials said that the administration will soon hire a consultant for the enormous spadework required for the conversion of electricity department into a corporation on the lines of other states such as Punjab and Haryana.

Sources say that over the past two-three years,the department has only managed to reduce the T&D losses from 22 percent to 20 per cent. As per norms,all states and UTs have to bring down transmission and distribution loss to 15 per cent.

So far,the UT electricity department is facing an acute shortage of manpower besides slow pace of work on tenders involving huge amounts running into several crores. To even float such tenders,the department is required to get the approval from the Centre. Once the department becomes an independent body,such decisions would be taken at the level of the corporation itself,said a senior UT official.