Consumers Complaint Forum India

The Kerala State Electricity Board is set to embark on an action plan for rebuilding its distribution infrastructure and also for resuming power supply in the flood-ravaged areas.

Top priority is for resuming power supply in relief camps, hospitals and the water treatment plants of the Kerala Water Authority. Drinking water supply was a major issue in 11 districts and hence supply to the plants would be revived on a war-footing, sources said.

Consumers in the affected districts would be given adequate room to pay their power bills and connection would not be snapped for non-payment. The board could not deploy its personnel for reading the power meters that remain submerged in most of the districts and hence payment dates have been relaxed. No fines would be levied from the consumers for non-payment.

Also, the board would not demand any certificate or other credentials in support of applications for reconnection from the consumers in the affected areas. The priority is to provide connections to consumers at the earliest, sources said.

The board has constituted a multi-tier task force for crisis management. Executive engineers would be tasked to head the execution of the plan in electrical divisions and deputy chief engineers in electrical circles. Field staff are already working overtime addressing complaints and ministerial staff too would made part of the task force, sources said.

As many as 12,000 poles, conductors or lines spanning 8,000 km, 900 transformers and 61,155 single-phase meters would be used for executing the plan. The board had to switch off 4,000 transformers in the wake of the floods. Most of them continue to remain submerged and a majority of the transformers would have to be replaced.

Production loss on account of the flood has been estimated at about Rs. 350 crore. The loss due to infrastructure damage has not yet been ascertained, sources said.