New Delhi, July 10: The accelerated power development reforms programme (APDRP), which is designed to help state electricity boards improve their performance, will be further strengthened and an independent evaluation done to determine the progress made by the SEBs.

Union power minister P. M. Sayeed today reiterated the government’s commitment to reform the power sector and said the procedures for providing incentives will be further simplified.

He said the APDRP aims to reduce aggregate technical and commercial losses, cut outages and improve consumer satisfaction. The government has already cleared an outlay of Rs 412 crore for 410 projects under the APDRP. Power secretary R. V. Shahi said the genuine difficulties in calculating the incentive component would be addressed by the ministry.