No hasty decision on privatisation of power supply: UP Min

Ghaziabad, March 16: Public interest at large is the state government's priority and no hasty decision will be taken on privatisation of the power supply in Ghaziabad, UP minister Yasar Shah said here on Monday.

"We have conducted feasibility surveys in this regard, but that does not mean that the state government is proceeding towards it," Shah, UP's Minister of State for Power, said in response to a query from reporters here.

Shah was here to inaugurate the capacity enhancement of 132-kV Lal Quan sub-station. He also dedicated the Kavi Nagar-II and Krishna Vihar sub- station to the public and laid the foundation stones of 13 new sub-stations in Ghaziabad.

Also, a kilometre-long transmission line from Murad Nagar to Lal Quan sub-station has been replaced with a new one at a cost of Rs 25 lakh. Shah said that improving the power supply in the state was a priority for Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav.

Construction work on all sub-stations will be completed on time and the results will be visible from next year, he said, adding that there will be no dearth of power in UP.

By the end of 2016, metropolitan cities in the state will get 24-hour power supply, the minister said. District headquarters will get 22 hours of power while villages will have 16-hours' electricity supply and UP is going to be an "outage-free state" by 2019, he added.

By the end of 2016, metropolitan cities in the state will get 24/7 power supply

UP government will be spending Rs 31,000 crore for enhancing power generation and strengthening the distribution network within the next two years, Shah said.

This year, 684-km of old wires will be replaced across the state and 68,000 new transformers will be installed, he said.

Speaking about problems being faced by power consumers, Yasar said that power corporation officials must be sympathetic to their woes and share information with the public about any power cuts, reasons for outages and probable time for resumption of supply.

Officials of the power corporation and district administration were present on the occasion.

PTI