Power consumers check out an ATP machine at Gandhi Maidan in Patna on Tuesday. Picture by Ashok Sinha

Power consumers in the state capital would soon be able to pay their bills at any of the Any Time Payment (ATP) machines in the capital.

Patna Electric Supply Undertaking (Pesu) is planning to interlink all the 10 ATP machines in the city. This would enable about 3.25 lakh power consumers to deposit their electricity bills at any of the 10 divisions.

The interlinking is expected to be completed within a month or two, said sources.

At present, a consumer can deposit the electricity bill in his or her respective division only. There are two modes of power bill payment: through ATPs or at the bill deposit counter.

Pesu has divided the city into two parts with five divisions each to ensure efficient and smooth functioning. Two years ago, it installed 10 ATPs in association with Canara Bank to facilitate easy payment of electricity bills.

“We would soon interlink all the billing machines of all the ten divisions through Scada (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) system. Once it is done, all the ATPs would be connected and consumers would be able to pay their power bills at any of the ATP machines,” Pesu general manager SKP Singh told The Telegraph.

The Scada system, which was inaugurated by chief minister Nitish Kumar on August 26 last year, is a consumer-friendly facility enabling instant billing and round-the-clock customer care service besides keeping a tab on the current load on all power sub-stations.

Singh said at present, about 10 per cent of the consumers use the ATP machines to clear their power bills. This percentage of consumers would increase once interlinking is complete.

Pesu, on an average, receives about Rs 60 crore per month as electricity bill, Singh said. “Out of this, Rs 40 crore comes from general users excluding industrial consumers. About Rs 3 crore to Rs 4 crore is deposited at one ATP counter. This proves people have started using ATP machines,” he added.

Asked if the move to interlink ATP machines will boost the use of the system, an official said there would certainly be an increase in the number of users as people would be able to make bill payment at any time according to their convenience.

“Suppose a person resides in Rajiv Nagar and works in the secretariat. He can deposit his electricity bill at the secretariat. This way he will save both time and energy,” the official said.

Dilip Kumar, a resident of SK Nagar and a bank employee, said: “The ATP machine is user friendly. Earlier, depositing electricity bill used to be a tedious and time-consuming job, as one had to stand in long queues for several minutes. Now it is done within a few minutes and that too in a more convenient manner. It would be a big boon if these machines are interlinked. It would provide us the liberty to deposit the bill at any of the ATP centres.”

Avinash Kumar Singh, a resident of Patel Nagar, expressed similar views. “The machine will be more effective and useful when the boundaries of division are erased,” he said.