Mumbai, May 3 (IANS) There is no load-shedding in nearly 70 percent of Maharashtra due to improved power position, an official said here Thursday.
At the same time, in an attempt to curb distribution losses and thefts, the state’s electricity supply agency decided to get tough with residents of areas where incidence of theft was high.
The move came even as the state marches towards achieving self-sufficiency in power and the Maharashtra State Electricity Board (MSEB) goes all out to recover a whopping Rs.6,000 crores arrears from consumers.
Of the 142 supply regions in the state, the MSEB Thursday withdrew all power cuts from 94 divisions, or nearly 70 percent, and started providing them with uninterrupted power round-the-clock, said Sharad Dabhade, director (operations) of MSEB’s distribution wing, MahaVitaran.
Explaining the problems confronting the company in the remaining 30 percent areas, he said that the effort was aimed at containing the company’s losses and compelling people to pay up for the power consumed.
At the same time, he said that those regions in the state where the recovery position was much better, MahaVitaran would curtail the number of hours of daily load-shedding, providing relief to the consumers.
One of the reasons for the high incidence of distribution losses and power thefts was that the entire MSEB supply network was through overhead wires, criss-crossing the state’s 316,000 sq km area.
In places like Mumbai or Pune, it is mostly underground which prevents theft, he said.
