Dhubri, July 15: Power supply in Dhubri electrical sub-division has improved following the installation of an alternative line from Salakati, commissioning of Dhubri substation and powerline upgrade from 22MW to 35MW.

The residents of Dhubri and its suburbs have heaved a sigh of relief now as the power situation has improved.

Instead of unending hours of load shedding, power cuts have now been of 30-minute duration for the past week.

"There have been power cuts but not more than half-an-hour. In this scorching and unbearable heat, it is a huge relief," Swapan Prasad, a resident of the town, said.

Operators of Xerox, Internet cafes, off-set printing and computer desktop printing are happy that they no longer have to bear generator expenses.

"We have to incur an expense of around Rs 1,000 to run a generator plus the monthly electricity bill. Now we are relieved of this extra expense," a Xerox operator, Monojit Paul, said.

But all this improvement might not long last if the payment of monthly bill by over 21,000 consumers was irregular, said an official of the Gauripur division of Assam Power Distribution Company here today.

Earlier, Gauripur division (Dhubri is subdivision under Gauripur) received power supply to its Matiabag substation (132/33KV) from Salakati via Dhaligaon, Gossaigaon (Joyma) but now an alternative supply line has come up recently from Salakati via Adabari (Kokrajhar), Udmari (Bilasipara) to Matiabag.

Talking to The Telegraph, Dhubri sub-divisional official Champak Mishra said Dhubri subdivision covers 1.5 lakh population.

"My priorities were to start the Dhubri substation and improve the power position. These two things and various other technical aspects have been taken care of," Mishra said.

However, the Assam Power Distribution Company is yet to receive over Rs 7.5 crore as outstanding consumer bill, including Rs 39 lakh from the government, a source said.

Mishra said they have started disconnecting the lines which have a huge amount of outstanding dues.