Dept to start replacing power meters with digital ones from next month

Power Minister Pandurang Madkaikar has said that the work to replace 3 lakh analogue electricity meters to digital will begin by next month for which the work has already been tendered. Madkaikar said, “There are around 60,000 analogue electricity meters which are faulty and because of this the department could not bill the consumers according to their electricity consumption.” The power minster also informed that the tender for procuring smart electricity meters under the smart city initiative will be floated in the next few days. “We are in the process of finalising the tendering documents along with its specifications and in the next 15 days, the government will be in a position to float the tender for procuring smart electricity meters under the smart city initiative for the city of Panjim on a pilot basis,” Madkaikar said. “There were multiple companies which came up with the latest technology in digital meters and we wanted the best and the latest technology and that is the reason the floating of tender was delayed,” he said. He further said that approximately 70,000 smart electricity meters will be installed in Panjim and the entire Division I for an estimated cost of Rs 60-70 crore.