At last, Adityapur consumers see Jusco light:
Jamshedpur, December 10, 2007

Entrepreneurs in Jharkhand’s biggest industrial area, Adityapur, who have been at the receiving end of the Jharkhand State Electricity Board (JSEB) for years are now seeing a ray of hope. Jamshedpur Utilities & Services Company (Jusco) is gearing up to distribute power to the area. Jusco, a 100% subsidiary of Tata Steel, was in late 2006 granted a unique second license for the Seraikela-Kharswan district, which houses the Adityapur industrial area, despite the district being served by JSEB. The industrial area has around 600 small & medium enterprises and around 1,200 domestic and commercial connections

Though, of late, JSEB had been trying its best to improve supply in the industrial area, consumers were in no mood to listen. According to Adityapur Small Industries Association (ASIA) president SN Thakur, the two generating establishments at Patratu (of JSEB) and the independent Tenuaghat Vidyut Nigam Ltd (TVNL) were quite old and prone to frequent breakdowns. Power from JSEB could not be relied upon any more, he added.

Also, with the state receiving only 120mw from the central pool’s 267mw quota, the situation, most entrepreneurs said, looked bleak even with an additional 40mw enhancement promised recently by Union power minister Sushil K Shinde.

Tired of ‘erratic’ and ‘highly undependable’ JSEB power supply, around 150 new and old industrial units as well as a large number of domestic users spread over the industrial belt starting from Chandil have already put in applications with Jusco. Several other units are also coming forward to pay up Jusco's installation charges for industrial consumers at around Rs 5,500 per KVA.

Applications already with Jusco added up to a demand of around 80mw in the industrial area and beyond, extending up to Chandil. Some JSEB consumers interested in disconnecting from the Board alleged that they were facing problems in obtaining the 'no objection certificate’ from Jusco.

Although Jharkhand State Electricity Regulatory Commission’s directions together with the 30-day time-frame for issuance of such NOC were clear, consumers alleged that they were being threatened by JSEB officials of dragging them to court if they opted for Jusco switchover. However, when asked about this allegation, JSEB general manager-cum-chief engineer AK Trivedi denied it as ‘baseless’.

Starting with phase II of Adityapur, where Jusco is currently busy completing its distribution network by building a sub-station for supplying the 10mw excess power that it today has, it has plans to move next to phase VII with a 20 MVA sub-station and thereafter to other places.

Already Jusco has been approached by around 30 high-tension (HT) industrial consumers and a sizeable number of domestic ones in the phase II locality.

DVC has also already agreed to deliver to Jusco at the Manikui sub-station (at Chandil grid) around 40-60mw, which Jusco would take one-and-a-half years to bring to Adityapur by way of laying transmission lines. It has also completed 70%-80% work on the 132 KVA transmission lines which would carry 40-60mw from Tata Power’s Jojobera unit to its main 112 MVA sub-station.

‘‘Currently stringing work is going on and we expect to complete the jobs by March 2008,’’ said VP Singh, chief, Jusco's Seraikela-Kharswan power project, adding that work often was progressing slowly due to interference by local musclemen.

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