'Need to strengthen Nagaland's electricity billing mechanism'

The Power Department in Nagaland needs to strengthen its electricity billing and collection mechanism to increase revenue collection that would go a long way in improving the state's economy, Nagaland Commissioner and Secretary for Power Department, K D Vizo said Thursday.

He said that power is an essential service and its interruption could endanger life, health or personal safety of the general population.

As of now, Nagaland's power demand is estimated at 250 MW. The state's four power projects together generate 89.09 MW. The state spends Rs 296.97 crore to buy power to meet the shortfall while the revenue receipt stood at Rs 130.15 crore, government data showed.

Speaking at the general conference of Association of Power Engineers Nagaland (APEN) in Kohima, Vizo stressed on the need to incorporate state-of-the-art technology to improve transmission, generation and distribution sector to enhance revenue collections.

He said that power connection is still a costly service and there was a need to work hard to find out ways and means of giving power connections at cheap price.

He also said that Power safety mechanism should be strengthened so that lives of field staff as well as those of citizens are not endangered.