Patna, Sept. 10: After being assured of getting adequate power up to 4,000MW by 2015, Bihar is going in for a major overhaul of transmission and distribution of energy so that the impact of sufficient electricity can be felt.

On Monday, Bihar’s power minister, Bijendra Prasad Yadav, and the chairman-cum-managing director of Power Grid Corporation of India (PGCI), R.N. Naik, held a meeting where they decided to work in tandem.

“It was agreed in principle that the state and PGCI will have a joint venture in the next 25 years. The venture will look after transmission and capacity enhancement. It will make grids and network of transmission wires. It will also maintain 33 KVA power sub-stations,” Yadav told The Telegraph.

He, however, asserted that the agreement was subject to the chief minister’s consent.

Nitish Kumar had announced during his Independence Day speech that he would not ask for votes but go about apologising to the people of Bihar in the 2015 Assembly polls if he fails to improve the power situation.

The chief minister’s words appear to have shaken up the energy department. “It is a promise made by the chief minister on Independence Day. If we cannot fulfil it, what would be our credibility?” said Yadav.

Bihar is not only facing inadequate supply of power, the transmission lines are also in bad shape. According to estimates, 72,000km of transmission wire in the state has to be changed. There is an acute shortage of grids, not only causing difficulty in the distribution of power to the consumers but also huge transmission loss of around 40 per cent.

“The state electricity board chairman has been asked to prepare a report and estimate the cost of having a grid located not more than 20km away from the power sub-station. If we are able to implement that, it would mean we would be able to double the number of grids in the state,” said Yadav.

At present, the state electricity board has 71 grids.