Patna, Nov. 29: Patna Electric Supply Undertaking (Pesu) has completed all necessary arrangements to provide unhindered power supply to the state capital from December 1.

The Bihar State Electricity Board, on November 13, issued a notification for providing 24-hour power supply to Patna from December 1. For this, residents of Patna will have to shell out 10 per cent more on energy consumption as a “premium charge”. Besides Patna, two tourist centres — Rajgir and Bodhgaya — would get round-the-clock power supply, the notification said.

Pesu, which is entrusted with the job of providing power supply to the urban areas of the state capital, is busy conducting last-minute checks of its infrastructure, like transmission and distribution network, as barely two days are left for providing the uninterrupted power service.

Pesu’s seriousness and vigilance could be gauged from the fact that failure to deliver unhindered power supply would attract penalty, which may extend up to Rs 1 lakh for each contravention under electricity act 2003.

Asked whether Pesu is fully geared up to provide uninterrupted power supply to the capital given its rickety transmission and distribution infrastructure, Pesu general manager-cum-chief engineer SKP Singh told The Telegraph: “We have completed necessary strengthening of our network to enable round-the-clock quality power supply (with adequate voltage). We have strengthened our 33KV lines and grids. We have taken steps to minimise breakdowns and strengthen our transmission and distribution network.”

The undertaking is fully prepared to redress the two problems of attending fuse-off calls at night and repairing transformer fuse in the shortest possible time, Singh said, adding that from December 1, round-the-clock control rooms will operate in all the 10 divisions of Pesu to address consumer complaints.

Singh added: “These control rooms used to work during Durga Puja, Diwali and Chhath. But now we have decided to extend the service throughout the year on 24x7 mode. Besides this, there will be a designated officer, either of junior engineer or assistant engineer rank in each division for night shifts on a rotational basis.”

Energy theft

BSEB officials today conducted raids on the premises of several domestic and commercial power consumers in different divisions of Pesu and detected a theft of more than Rs 27 lakh, board official sources said. The raid was conducted by the local team on the instructions of special task force in Patliputra, Bankipore, New Capital, Guljarbagh, Patna city divisions.

The raiding party detected a theft of Rs 18 lakh from one Rajan Verma, a resident of Patliputra. The second biggest amount of theft — Rs 6.32 lakh — was detected from the house of Manzur Alam, a resident of Samanpura in New Capital.