The Minister gave this direction at the review meeting of Chennai’s North, Central, West, South-I, II distribution circles attended by the superintendent engineers, executive engineers and assistant executive engineers. The review meeting was held in the wake of the increasing number of consumer complaints of frequent power outages.

In the meeting, the Minister reviewed the complaints received at the new 24x7 customer call centre Minnagam, the time took to rectify it and the reasons for frequent power outages in particular areas.

Senthilbalaji said he would take steps to get the approval of the Chief Minister for the five-year plan. “We have to make a five-year plan to increase our generation capacity and strengthen the distribution network so that we don’t face problems in the future. You have to submit the five-year plan in a week’s time,” he directed the officials.

The Minister also asked the officials to popularise the new customer call centre number 94987 94987 by sending an SMS to all the consumers who registered their mobile numbers. He directed the officials to display the new customer number at the local area office and to publish at bill payment receipt. The assistant engineer should rectify the complaints received through the customer call centre, he said, adding that the officials should communicate to the consumer after rectifying the complaint.