SRINAGAR: Union Home Secretary, Ajay Kumar Bhalla on Tuesday chaired a high-level meeting with the Chief Secretaries of the Union Territories to review the progress of privatization of power distribution and smart metering in Jammu and Kashmir.
Chief Secretary, Dr Arun Kumar Mehta participated in the meeting on behalf of government.
At the outset, a detailed presentation was given by the Ministry of Power showing progress and status achieved in privatization of power distribution and installation of smart meters in the UT.
It was informed that 63,844 smart meters have been installed in J&K and the target of 1.15 lakh meters will be achieved by July as the process for the instillation has been expedited across J&K.
During the meeting, it was also informed that the Request for Proposal (RFP) for six lakh meters was published on January 1, 2022, which is going to be finalized soon. Similarly, project proposal for remaining 14.95 lakh meters as per Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme (RDSS) guidelines is under formulation, the meeting was informed.
On future course, Mehta informed that under Stage-I, a report has been got prepared highlighting advisory which include human resources policy and employee handbook compendium, peak hour and unrestricted energy demand forecast along with estimation of Capex requirement, besides the opening of balance sheet of two DISCOMs, sharing of common resources between Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh and statutory compliance and options for future along with pros and cons of each option. It was also informed that Stage-II will be taken up after completion of Stage-I.
Union Home Secretary expressed satisfaction that the administration is extending full support to the executing agencies for timely achievements of the milestones in the Schemes and assured all cooperation of the Union Government to ensure that the prepaid metering will is taken forward in a focused manner.

KR Desk