Merge power utilities: Association to Punjab govt

Patiala, August 12

Over 13 years after the Parkash Singh Badal-led government dissolved the Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) and replaced it with the Punjab State Transmission Corporation Limited (PSTCL) and the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL), the engineers have now asked the state government to merge the two companies.

In a letter to the Chief Secretary, the PSEB Engineers’ Association general secretary Ajay Pal Singh Atwal, said, “The merger of the PSPCL and the PSTCL will lead to better power quality and reduction in the cost of power. With the merger, around 300 crore can be saved annually.”

He said the merger would result in better efficiency, reduction in the cost of business, improvement in the quality of power, improved consumer services and only the state load dispatch centre needs to be separated as a different accounting entity.

“Due to non-timely planning and upgradation of 220KV and 66KV transmission systems, many industrial connections remain pending in the industrial hubs. This is not only a loss of revenue to the corporation, but also undermines the efforts of the state to improve its ease of doing business rankings,” said VK Gupta, spokesperson, All India Power Engineers Federation.