Dhumal sets ball rolling for HPSEB unbundling

The previous Congress government had constituted the Himachal Pradesh Power Corporation,an independent power generating company and Himachal Pradesh Power Transmission Corporation,to separate functions of power generation and Transmission.

Under the Electricity Act 2003,the state governments are required to scrap the state electricity boards and create separate identities for discharging functions of power generation,distribution and transmission. Though last year,the government issued the notification vesting the assets and liabilities of the HPSEB to the state government,it could not take further steps to re-vest these assets into proposed companies.

Last week,Dhumal while attending a conference of the state power ministers called in Delhi by Union power minister Sushil Kumar Shinde was question for not complying with the Centre’s directions.

“I have given assurance to meet the June 15 deadline. The process is already underway to reorganise the HPSEB so that its working becomes transparent and brings in efficiency after separate entities are formed to discharge functions of generation,distribution and transmission,” he said.

Sources in the HPSEB said the failure of the board to take a decision on unbundling will deprive the agency from availing Central funds of Rs 800 crore.

Dhumal admitted that after Punjab’s abrupt move of unbundling,all eyes were on Himachal. Haryana had gone through the process long ago.

Under the provisions,the state government is supposed to create a separate state transmission utility (STU) for handling power distribution job,which can’t be part of the main functions of the erstwhile board.

The HPSEB unions,however,claims the government will have to adopt its own model for the reorganisation of the board,instead of blindly following any other state. Himachal has a power potential of 21,000 MW and is highly-efficient in distribution network,unlike any other state,the employees said.