Karaibo Chawang
Kohima | August 11
The Union Power Secretary has reportedly cautioned the Nagaland government that the state may soon face severe power crisis if the latter fails to carry out drastic reforms in the power sector as per the guideline issued by the centre under Accelerated Power Distribution Reforms Programme (APDRP).
In a recently held meeting at Guwahati, which was attended by state power Chief Engineer, WA Shishak, the Union Power Secretary has set October month as the deadline for the Nagaland state to effectively implement the said scheme, while cautioning that the state power scenario would land up in a severe trouble if the concern department fails to heed the warning of the centre.
However, it is not known what kind of ‘trouble’ the state power will be facing.
Under the APDRP scheme all states in the country are to bring out reform in the power sector. One main objective of the programme is to reduce the Aggregate Transmission and Commercial (AT&C) losses, which is one of the common problems faced by all power departments across the country.
Confirming the warning of the Union Power Secretary, state Power Commissioner and Secretary, Temjen Toy today disclosed that Nagaland state is currently grappling with 60% AT&C losses, and in spite of all the efforts put forth by the state power department to improve billing and collection system, the revenue collection has barely achieved its target, which he said is not satisfactory.
Emphasizing that the billing and collection system has to be made efficient, Temjen Toy told the Engineers of the Power departments at their General Conference today at HotelJapfu that unless this reform is brought about , the state power sector may face trouble within a few years time.
The Association of Power Engineers, Nagaland, General Conference which was held under the theme: “Vision 2020” today has predicted that the state may require 450-500 MW of power by 2020. But Commissioner and Secretary cautioned that the state may not be able to handle such huge power requirement if the human resources and the existing system are not upgraded.
Even now the state power scenario could have collapsed, however, the Rs 67 crore provided by the centre under NLCPR came as rescuer, informed the Commissioner who also went on to add that the state’s actual demand is 85 MW at present, however, the existing system could best handle only 75 MW, while making firm emphasis that the state power department really needed to be prepared to meet the future demand.
It may be mentioned here that the Union Power Ministry has provided fund to the department to undertake reform works under the APDRP on turn-key basis throughout the state. The first phase was supposed to be completed by June 2006, however, this target has not been met till date and as such the Centre has set October as the deadline to the State. The objective is to initiate Power Sector Reforms facilitated by proper energy accounting & strengthening of sub transmission system.
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