By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, Dec 7: Power Minister Prestone Tynsong on Tuesday admitted that the department has a huge outstanding liability of more than Rs 2,000 crore that has accumulated over a decade and said the state government was working on decreasing it by clearing dues on a monthly basis.
“Outstanding dues are not less than Rs 2000 crore. This is huge and was inherited over a period of 10-15 years but we are determined to resolve this issue and make sure that the outstanding liability decreases every month,” Tynsong said.
Pointing out that the MDA government had inherited the problem, he said the government was trying its best to clear the outstanding dues of the department and Meghalaya Energy Corporation Limited (MeECL).
Asked if the Government of India covers this aspect under the Atma Nirbhar scheme, Tynsong said, “That is a different issue; this special scheme is related to outstanding payment towards the supplying companies like NTPC and NEEPCO. This amount is being transferred from GOI to the supplying company and it does not come to us.”
Asked whether load-shedding would be a problem in view of the outstanding dues and the ensuing dry season, the minister said, “We will try whatever we can to address it.”
Stating that load-shedding happens mostly during the winter season when there is less water, he said, “We have introduced this system of power swapping.”
Explaining the system, Tynsong said, “When we have surplus power we give it and during the dry season we take power to ensure that there is no load-shedding which we experience annually.”
He said the MeECL and the Power department have worked this out so that there is no load-shedding in the coming months.
Meanwhile, the minister also revealed that the government has set a target of September 2022 to commission the Rs 507.71-crore 21.5 MW Ganol Small Hydro Project (GSHP) project that was conceived way back in 2006.
The cost of the project was revised to Rs 507.71 crore from the initial estimate of Rs 350 crore. The loan amount is Rs 223.4 crore, while the equity and grant is Rs 54.62 crore and Rs 229.98 crore, respectively. Tynsong attended a review meeting on installation of smart meters, augmentation of Mawlai sub-station, and the GSHP.
Talking about the upgradation of Mawlai sub-station, he said that the funding is from DoNER Ministry and as the previous tender of 2019 had problems they have now cancelled it and fresh tender will be called.
On smart meters he said, “As far as installation of smart meters is concerned the work is on and we have already completed not less than 15,000 meters. I am sure by March 2022 we will be able to install around 1.8 lakh meters in the state.”
On charges of corruption in the smart meter project, Tynsong said, “I will not answer anything as it is the responsibility of the independent judicial inquiry.”
Talking about the acceptance of smart metres, he said, “There has to be acceptance since smart metering will help both the Corporation as well as the consumer since no manipulation can be done and there would be no error in the billing system.”
Talking about the recent meeting called by Union Power Minister RK Singh with the Power minister of the Northeastern states, Tynsong said, “We had a meeting in Guwahati last Friday chaired by Power Minister RK Singh and he reviewed the distribution reforms in each and every state.”
Stating that the Centre has already set guidelines for the states to be fulfilled by March 2022, Tynsong said, “One of the guidelines is that the smart metering system has to be in place to avoid revenue loss.”