The State government has secured a loan of ₹700 crore from the World Bank for laying underground power cables in Visakhapatnam city to face natural disasters in future, according to Principal Secretary (Power) Ajay Jain.

Speaking to the media here on Friday he said the power situation was very comfortable. The underground power cable project here may be completed by March 2018. He said the World Bank had agreed in principle to provide ₹2,500 crore as loan for improving power distribution infrastructure in the State.

He said the State had become the third in the country to achieve 100 per cent electrification of all households . The state was taking all steps for energy conservation such as distribution of LED lights, replacement of conventional street lights with LED ones and replacement of 15 lakh energy-inefficient agricultural pump sets with efficient ones.

Online monitoring Jain said power was being supplied 24 hours a day, seven days a week, but “we are not content with it. We wish to supply quality power with as few interruptions as possible.” Online monitoring of all the feeders was being taken up to assess power supply on real-time basis.

To attract more investment and industries into the State, the government has dispensed with the requirement of a feasibility certificate and power will be provided within 21 days.

T & D losses The transmission and distribution losses in the State amounted only to 10.2 per cent, the lowest in the country, and the AP Eastern Power Distribution Company Limited (APEDCL) here stood first in the country with only 4 per cent losses. In response to a question, he said there were still several gas-based private power plants in the State operating far below their capacity for want of gas linkage and incurring heavy losses.

sarma.rs@thehindu.co.in

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