A guard at the ATP machine centre at Gandhi Maidan in Patna on Saturday. Picture by Nagendra Kumar Singh

Patna, Aug. 3: Power consumers in the city would be able to pay their bills at the Any Time Payment machines in all 10 divisions as they would be integrated in a month.

At present, residents falling under the 10 divisions of Patna Electric Supply Undertaking (Pesu) can deposit their bills over the counter or from the two Any Time Payment (ATP) machines each in their areas. Once these are integrated within a month, residents can deposit their bills from any ATPs in the city.

On Friday, the ATP machine at the Pesu headquarters (under the New Capital division) was integrated for consumers from all divisions.

“Pesu has integrated billing for all divisions at the ATP machine on its premises. We would soon integrate the billing system at all the 10 divisions through the supervisory control and data acquisition system. Once they are all integrated, it would be easier for residents to pay their power bills through any of the machines in the divisions,” a source at Pesu said.

Officials expect the number of consumers paying their bills from the ATP machines to go up once the integration is complete.

An official said: “There would certainly be an increase in the number of people using the ATP machines in the city to deposit their electricity bills. For instance, a person who lives in Rajeev Nagar (Patliputra division) but works at the Secretariat can deposit his electricity bill at the ATP machine at the Pesu headquarters. This would save both time and energy.”

Dilip Kumar, a SK Nagar resident, appreciated the ATP machines installed around the city.

He said: “Earlier, depositing electricity bills used to be a tedious and time-consuming job. We would have to stand in long queues, but now we can do the same thing in a few minutes. It would be a great boon if these machines are integrated so that we are at liberty to deposit the bills at any of the machines.”