Punjab Plans Power Reforms

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The Punjab government has decided to carry out reforms in the power sector with technical and financial assistance from the Power Finance Corporation (PFC) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

In a recent letter to PFC director A A Khan, state power secretary Gokul Patnaik said, The Punjab government has accepted, in principles, to carry out reforms in the existing organisational structures and systems so as to make them more effective and efficient in management, raise resources for augmentation and expansion of the system, provide better services to consumers and create competition in course of time. The agenda for the state governments plan for reforms in the power sector will include:

Private participation in generation.

Setting up of an independent regulatory and tariff mechanism.

Exploring the possibilities of mobilisation of additional resources for laying new transmission lines, upgradation of existing ones and revamp in the distribution system.

Institutional development of the state electricity board.

Formulation and adoption of `Operational and Financial Action Plan for the state electricity board.

The state government has also asked PFC to enlist consultants for the purpose. It has also set up a committee headed by chief secretary R S Mann, which will act as the steering committee for the power sector reforms programme and will interact with PFC. The committee will also oversee the implementation of the action plan received from PFC.