NEW DELHI, Nov 28 - The Centre, Powergrid, the six northeastern states, including Assam and the World Bank (WB) on Monday signed a USD 470 million loan agreement to support transmission and distribution (T&D) networks and strengthen the capacity of the state-level power utility departments in extending last mile electricity connections to households.
Besides Assam, the agreement covers Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura.
Official sources said that the loan agreement for the North Eastern Region Power System Improvement Project (NERSIP) was signed by Joint Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Raj Kumar, and Operations Manager and Acting Country Director, World Bank India, Hisham Abdo.
The project agreement for the loan was signed by Executive Director (Business Development Department, Joint Venture and Private Investment) of Powergrid TC Sarmah, and supplementary project agreement(s) were signed by Additional Chief Secretary, Power (Electricity) Department, Rajiv Bora, among others.
The existing power network infrastructure in the six participating states is old and has not been adequately maintained. This makes it prone to high technical and non-technical losses, and leads to frequent interruptions in power supply. In addition, most of the utilities incur commercial losses due to inadequate cost structures and tariffs, said sources.
�This project will strengthen and augment the intra-state transmission, sub-transmission and distribution networks by upgrading old and constructing new lines and associated substations in the six participating states. These investments will allow the transmission network to transfer electricity more efficiently and with minimum wastage, and help the utilities supply reliable electricity at a stable voltage to consumers,� said Rajkumar.
The North Eastern Region Power System Improvement Project will be implemented through Powergrid, which has been appointed as the implementing agency by the Government of India and it will provide technical and managerial support for improving intra-state transmission and distribution systems in these states. After commissioning, the assets created under the project will be owned, operated and maintained by the respective state power utilities and departments. Powergrid will also help build the capacity of the state departments and utilities to continue managing the refurbished networks in an optimum and efficient manner.
