Patna, Jan. 19: Patna Electric Supply Undertaking (Pesu) has arranged a sub-station for round-the-clock supply to VVIP areas in the capital even as the rest of the state continues to reel from frequent power cuts.

Areas around the chief minister’s secretariat, the Raj Bhavan, the old secretariat and other strategic locations would get uninterrupted supply once the new sub-station near Haj Bhavan becomes operational.

“The new sub-station is ready and undergoing trial runs. It would become operational by the end of this month,” Pesu general manager-cum-chief engineer SKP Singh told The Telegraph.

“The commissioning of this sub-station would reduce load on the existing sub-station at Sinchai Bhavan, which supplies electricity to the high-profile areas,” Singh added. Bihar State Electricity Board (BSEB) had in November last year issued a notification to provide 24-hour power supply to Patna from December 1, 2011.

The notification had also stated that the residents of the state capital would have to shell out 10 per cent more on energy consumption as a premium charge.

Besides Patna, Rajgir and Bodhgaya would get round-the-clock power supply, the notification had said. Later, BSEB rolled back the decision exposing its lack of preparedness to deal with any emergency that might arise once the uninterrupted supply began.

Moreover, the power sub-stations at Sichai Bhavan, Vidyut Bhavan, Vikas Bhavan and the high court would be interconnected so that supply could be restored in these upscale areas from the sub-stations in the event of any technical glitch at Haj Bhavan, Singh said.

He added that this would provide more power stability in the VVIP areas.

According to sources, with the supply to the VVIP areas shifted to the Haj Bhavan sub-station, power service in areas like Hardinge Road and Chitkohra bridge, that are connected with Sinchai Bhavan sub-station, would automatically improve.

BSEB has already started construction of power and grid sub-stations to enhance the supply in the capital so that residents do not face frequent tripping because of overloading at the sub-stations.

Patna has six power grids of various capacities such as Fatuha (150MVA), Khagaul (150MVA), Mithapur, Gaighat and Katra (100MVA each) and Jakkanpur (170MVA) and 45 sub-stations. These power grids and sub-stations cater to the energy requirement of the capital, including the suburban areas and Fatuha. These grids supply around 415MW to the state capital.

The board, which has doubled the capacity of 14 power sub-stations from 5MVA to 10MVA, is now focusing on augmenting capacity of another eight sub-stations.

At present, the residents in western Patna suffer the agony of frequent power cuts as the Khagaul grid sub-station is overloaded. The problem would be sorted out once the Digha grid sub-station is commissioned. The sources said the sub-station is likely to be commissioned by the end of March.