Meghalaya Power Minister AT Mondal on Tuesday confirmed that the tender for the state’s smart meter project under the Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme (RDSS) has been allotted, and the Letter of Intent (LOI) will be issued soon. “We have already mentioned that we are already awarded the tender, the LOI will be given very quickly, and we will take our consumers into confidence to see that there is smooth implementation of smart metres,” Mondal said.
While acknowledging consumer apprehensions, Mondal remarked, “Yeah, naturally when you, uh, go for a new system or new technology apprehension will be always. It is not with only smart metre, it is with everywhere.” He pointed out that other states also faced initial hurdles. “All other states they have gone ahead with the implementation of smart metre. There were lots of complaints and all these things. Ultimately those issues have been resolved and smart metre has been implemented.”
He admitted that Meghalaya is behind in the process. “We are one of the state which are still lagging behind as per the implementation of a smart metre are concerned,” he said. “Cannot say you exact date for implementation, we we are late of even finalisation of tenders and all these things because of some companies getting blacklisted in somewhere.”
Mondal highlighted a key concern he recently raised with the Centre. “I raised this issue with Ministry of Power in front of Union Power Minister that we don’t know when somebody casts their tender, only at the flag end of the entire system that we come to know that some of the companies are blacklisted somewhere.”
He added that the Union Minister has taken note of the issue. “He assured and he instructed immediately to see that henceforth all the blacklisted company, names will be shown in a portal, especially designed for this purpose. So, that when tendering process is done, we can just check through that portal that which companies are blacklisted or not.”
