Patna, April 6: The onset of summer and power cuts across the state because of the coal crisis have prompted the state government to direct the Bihar State Power (Holding) Company Ltd to undertake maintenance of transformers twice a month.

Chief secretary Ashok Kumar Sinha reviewed performance of the power firm through video-conferencing yesterday and asked engineers to conduct regular maintenance of transformers.

Sinha also directed officers to maintain balance during loadshedding and stressed replacing worn out fuse wires, transformer oil and ensure proper earthing.

Based on the maintenance report, the engineers would find out if there is need of installing more transformers at a particular place. Expressing happiness over achieving the zero waitlist for replacement of burnt transformers, the chief secretary said the power company has 600 new transformers. He added that the power holding company also has 1,400 transformers, which could be utilised after repair.

Sinha directed divisional commissioners and district magistrates to conduct review meetings to ensure regular meter reading, billing and opening of adequate payment counters to improve revenue.

Residents here today suffered power cuts ranging from three to four hours, as not a single unit out of five of NTPC Kahalgaon (three units) and Farakka (two units) generated power. Sources said seven rakes of coal were sent to Kahalgaon, which is generating 820MW against the installed capacity of 2,340MW.